The City Civil and Sessions Court Bar Association has planned to strategy the Principal Judge of the court, expressing its reservations on the typical functioning of the court as per the new Standard Operating Procedure coming to impact from nowadays and recommended that it be deferred at least till mid-January subsequent year.
It has mentioned in a letter dated 1 December, 2020, indicating ‘hand-delivery’ signed by its president and secretary, that in the present situations, its members really feel that one hundred per cent physical attendance in court is ‘neither advisable nor possible’.
“The COVID-19 cases are on the rise and experts have opined that the second and third wave of COVID-19 is likely to be more severe than the first wave,” the letter says, adding that it has been observed all more than the planet that, anytime relaxations are permitted, circumstances raise phenomenally and lockdown is reimposed.
The association has cited sensible troubles such as the restrictions on travel in trains at peak hours and most of the advocates getting residents of suburbs, also advocates who are senior citizens not getting permitted to travel by public transport.
The SOP had entrusted the duty of keeping security precautions in Bar Rooms, library and canteens to the Bar Association of each and every court. The association has mentioned it will be ‘very difficult’ for it to do the identical. It has also stated that, considering the fact that its employees reside in distant suburbs and are not permitted to travel by nearby trains, it would be ‘impossible’ for them to attend duties routinely and thereby tough for the association to open and preserve the bar rooms. “We sincerely feel that if bar rooms are allowed to open, it would be impossible to maintain social distance as there is shortage of space,” it mentioned.
It has named it ‘impossible’ for the advocates and litigants to attend court, specifically in two shifts as directed in the new SOP. “As and when it becomes practical and safe for the advocates and litigants to attend the courts, the physical functioning of the courts may be started,” it mentioned. It has sought the present arrangement to continue till mid-January or, in the option, courts to function in the odd-even method according to their court numbers and advocates wait in the vacant courts although their matter is however to be named out.