Maha govt rejects plea to include legal services in essential services

The Maharashtra government on Friday told the Bombay High Court that it has rejected the representations made by lawyers from Mumbai wanting legal services to be recognised as essential services and that lawyers and their staff be allowed to travel by local trains.

On August 5, the secretary of the state Disaster Management Relief and Rehabilitation unit had passed an order saying that it was not possible at this stage to permit lawyers and their staff to use local train services and to declare them as essential services, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said.

He told this to a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice A S Gadkari.

"However, in future when the COVID-19 situation improves, the state government will consider the request made by the lawyers on priority," he said.

The pleas said that while the high court has been conducting hearings through video-conferencing, many lower courts still require one's physical presence owing to the infrastructure issues or lack of adequate internet connectivity.