Restore physical hearings in Nagpur courts: 250 advocates write to Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta

Over 250 advocates practising in Nagpur have made a representation to Chief Justice Dipankar Datta of the Bombay High Court with a request to restore the physical and regular working at the Nagpur Bench of the High Court and Subordinate Courts in Nagpur. .A delegation led by senior advocates MG Bhangde, Subodh Dharmadhikari, Sunil Manohar, Anand Jaiswal, SK Mishra, RL Khapre and Mukesh Samarth; High Court Bar Association office bearers Gauri Venkatraman, Prafulla Khubalkar, PB Patil and advocates SV Purohit, Harish Dangre, Sudhir Puranik, Deven Chauhan met Chief Justice Datta and Justice Sunil Shukre with their request to restore the physical working at Nagpur Courts and submitted a representation signed by lawyers. .After a detailed discussion with delegation, Chief Justice Datta assured them that the points raised in their representation to facilitate physical working at Nagpur will be positively considered when the administrative committee meeting is conducted at the Principal Seat of the High Court. .The representation raised the following points for Chief Justice Datta's consideration:.The number of corona cases has nearly reached zero, which was "far more promising and safe" than the when physical hearings were earlier resumed in January and February 2021. "Maximum stake holders are now vaccinated", the representation says. Virtual hearing is no substitute for physical hearing as hearing through video conference is not hassle free and has issues of connectivity. The representation ads that "it is high time that apart from only urgent cases, the other pending cases too need to be listed." The lawyers have raised grievance that they no longer have answers to genuine queries of "panicked litigants" whose cases are pending since a long time. More than 95% of the lawyers commute from their residence to workplace in private transportation unlike the lawyers in Mumbai who are dependent on public transportation. That the Court premises in Nagpur are spacious and airy, and have adequate bar rooms and facilities. Hence, there would be no over crowding or congestion. All official works in government and private officers are going on smoothly (in a physical setting)..Chief Justice Datta along with the administrative committee at the Principal Bench has scheduled a meeting today to decide on the further course of action pertaining to the manner in which hearings are to be conducted in the Courts in Maharashtra and Goa. .Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni today informed Chief Justice Datta that a meeting of the Special Task Force for COVID management in the State will be holding a meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, which is likely to get over before the High Court meeting begins. ."We hope they will take a decision on train travel. There are reports in the media that the government is thinking of permitting fully vaccinated people to travel in local trains. We need updates from that meeting in order to take a call on the further course of action" Chief Justice Datta said, in response. .[Read representation]