Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of Telangana High Court on Thursday instructed Advocate General B.S. Prasad to secure instructions from State government over granting exemption to advocates and their clerks from lockdown restrictions.
The judge was hearing a writ petition filed by lawyer T. Jayanth Jaosoorya seeking exemption for advocates and their clerks from lockdown restrictions. Passing the direction to the AG, the judge also instructed the petitioner to include Chief Secretary as party in the petition as the latter is empowered to take a call on the matter.
Appearing for the petitioner, lawyer Vishnuvardhan Reddy told the court that lawyers and their clerks had to step outside during the lockdown since they have to carry out all their professional work from their respective offices. Travelling to and fro the offices is becoming difficult for them in the backdrop of lockdown rules which prohibit movement of people from 10 a.m. to 6 a.m., he said. The judge sought to know why the lawyers or their clerks had to move outside since all the courts are operating in virtual mode. Mr. Reddy contended that most of the lawyers work from their offices which are located away from residences since the infrastructure like computers, printers, files and documents were located there.
He told the court that lawyers had to accompany their clients (who are facing criminal charges and had to go to police stations) as per amended provisions of the criminal procedure code. Lawyers were unable to go to police stations along with their clients as they were not exempted from lockdown restrictions.
He cited the examples of AP, Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala where advocates and their clerks were exempted from lockdown. Mr. Reddy requested the court to pass orders directing the State government to give similar relaxation in Telangana as well. The matter was posted to Monday for next hearing.
