The Maharashtra government, on Thursday, issued an order permitting lawyers practising in various courts registered with the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa and registered clerks of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) courts to commute by local train services amidst the pandemic on all working days only during non-peak hours. This will be on an experimental basis till November 23.
As reported by the Free Press Journal, lawyers and registered clerks are permitted to travel from 3.58 am to 8 am in the morning, between 11 am and 4 pm, and from 7 pm till the last local train of the day. They will not be permitted to travel during peak hours.
Further, the state government has sent a letter to the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (CR), urging them to allow uniformed private guards with valid identity cards to travel on all working days with immediate effect in both peak and non-peak hours being essential service staff.
The decision was taken at the meeting chaired by Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vikay Wadettiwar with the Railways on Wednesday.
Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary Kishor Raje Nimbalkar, on Thursday, in the order said, based on the various orders passed by the Bombay High Court from time to time, in particularly the order passed on October 19, lawyers and registered clerks are permitted to travel during non-peak hours in the local trains.
The order says the facility made available cannot be availed for undertaking travel during peak hours on any ground whatsoever and/or for any reason whatever. Monthly passes will not be issued, but for each journey, a separate one day ticket will have to be bought/purchased.
The train ticket will be sold only upon production of a valid identity card issued by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in the case of the lawyers and by the Bombay High Court registry in the case of registered clerks.
The ticket for one way travel so purchased will be non-transferable and cannot be used by anybody other than the person to whom it is sold (the lawyer or the registered clerk as the case may be).
Moreover, in a letter to the Railways, Nimbalkar said, “It is requested that uniformed private guards carrying valid identity cards be allowed to travel by local trains in Mumbai and MMR with immediate effect.”
