Amitha Muraleedharan
The Bombay Bar Association (BBA) requested Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta on looking for a modification in the office order released by the Court on 27th November.
The BBA and the other 452 lawyers in Mumbai separately wrote to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court requesting against the order which declared most benches to start physical hearing on an experimental basis from December 1 to January 10, 2021.
The request suggested that lawyers should be given an option to opt between physical or virtual hearing.
The representatives stated that restarting the physical hearing during this pandemic situation will worsen the situation, and also the elder members of lawyers could also be affected by the virus.
The representatives also cited incidents of the High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chennai, Patna, Allahabad, Jharkhand, and Meghalaya, which restarted the physical hearing and had shut down due to the spread of COVID-19.
Therefore, restarting physical hearings, they said, will create a “one-step forward, two-steps back” situation.
They also referred to the Delhi High Court order, which directed that the physical hearing can be attempted but cannot be enforced.
The representatives listed the possible reasons for the spread of coronavirus, which can create obstacles to continue with the physical hearing.
The present system of virtual hearings, which has been successful, can be continued till December 31, 2020, the lawyers urged.