The High Court of Bombay dismissed a petition seeking exemption for lawyers and legal service staffers from lockdown restrictions which were imposed to contain the spread of the disease, and seeking directions to include legal services as essential.
The main grievance raised in the Petition is that the advocates’ services have not been included in the category of “essential services”, in spite of many lawyers all over the country are attending the courts for delivering their legal services on humanitarian ground in prevailing pandemic situations.
The petitioner sought a direction to include the advocates’ legal services as essential services by including the same in the category of “essential services” under the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, 2017.
The plea was dismissed by a Bench of Justices S.S Shinde and Madhav Jamdar on the ground it was up to the State Government to decide on such issues, as outlined in the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, 2017.
“In case, such a representation, as submitted by the learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner, is filed by the Petitioner with the Respondents, the Respondents are free to consider the said representation in accordance with law and rejection of the present Writ Petition shall not be construed as an impediment to considering such representation”, the bench said.
