The Bar Council of Delhi has moved the Delhi High Court through Chairman KC Mittal to allow advocates residing in neighbouring areas of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to visit their offices and attend courts in the national capital.
The matter was moved for urgent hearing on Monday and is likely to be taken up this week.
The Petitioner through its Advocate Amit Prakash Shahi, informed the Court that vide Notification issued on May 1 the Central Government has permitted the use of private offices amidst the lockdown.
Therefore, it is contended that advocates residing in areas neighbouring Delhi, such as Noida, Gurugram etc, are also entitled to travel to Delhi and open their offices.
The Court is also informed that via a direction issued by Delhi Government on May 8, advocates could not be prevented from attending their private offices.
The petitioner has thus put forward his grievance that the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are not permitting the advocate to cross the borders to reach to their offices in spite of the above directions
It stated, “..the non-permitting of advocates to cross the border by the officials and authorities at the border of respondent no. 2 and 3 is in violation of fundamental rights under Article 19 (1)(d) and 301 of the Constitution of India and their action is highly arbitrary and illegal.”
The Petitioner has prayed for a direction to ensure the travel of the advocates on the basis of their Bar identity cards from various towns in NCR to attend to their private offices in Delhi.
Recently, the Delhi High Court Bar Association had also written to the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on the above matter.
