Plea in Delhi HC seeks to allow advocates to move between residence, office amid lockdown

A petition was moved in Delhi High Court seeking to allow advocates registered with the Bar Council of Delhi to move between their residences and offices during the lockdown period.

The petition, moved by advocate Satish K Rai, was mentioned before the court on Thursday and is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.

The plea sought to set aside the Centre's circular/order which allegedly denied access to justice by disallowing advocates, registered with the Bar Council of Delhi, to move between their residence and office by showing a valid Bar Council of Delhi License or any like ID Proof of being an Advocate, while abiding by the social distancing norms and guidelines or restrictions strictly.

The plea alleged that the recent order of the Central government has imposed restrictions on utilising the basic infrastructure of an advocate's office, essential for preparing and filing of a case (Petition/ Proceedings/appeal, etc) including access to court files, scanning facilities, print facilities, execution but not limited to these.

Despite litigants approaching the advocates for availing access to justice, the advocates are constrained to not provide and perform their functions enshrined under the Bar Council of India Rules as well as the Advocates Act of 1961 as an officer of the court, the plea said.

This comes as the Government of India had recently decided to extend the lockdown, which was earlier scheduled to end on April 14, up till May 3 to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The petition said that the order allowed and eased out restrictions from April 20, 2020, to various industries, orgsations and sectors including the self-employed professionals.

"Paragraph 14(xi) of the said Order made a specific provision for allowing self-employed persons such as electricians, IT, plumbers, etc. The said list of self-employed was illustrative and not exhaustive. Accordingly, Delhi Bar Association made a representation dated April 15, 2020, to the respondents, for allowing advocates to move to and from their office and residence with the observation of all other social distancing guidelines and norms," the plea said.

However, it said that no action has been taken on the letter/representation so far.

It prayed for drafting and preparation of pleadings, etc including printing, scanning, and executing, the requisite infrastructure of an advocate's office is required which is not generally available to all at home.

"In such circumstances, the litigants approaching the Advocates for availing remedy against any administrative, legal or judicial actions are helpless and so are the Advocates," the plea said.

It also said that such circumstances have lead to violation of the most basic and the protector of all other rights like access to justice.

( With inputs from ANI )

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