
254 members of the bar including Senior Advocates BA Desai, Yusuf Muchhala, Rajani Iyer and Arif Bookwala, have made a representation before Chief Justice B.P Dharmadhikari of the Bombay High Court for resuming physical hearings.
The members proposed that the courts must follow all safety precautions of social distancing, temperature checks etc. But regular public hearings should resume as virtual hearings may be a handicap for some lawyers, as they may not be comfortable with the technology, especially in lower courts.
The representation suggested for a system where the hearing itself is curtailed to the duration of submissions and one advocate is allowed inside the courtroom at a time and maybe one representative of the client can be allowed along with him. As an alternative, regular hearings via video conferencing were also proposed.