The State branch of the All India Lawyers’ Union (AILU) has requested Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Justice Arup Kumar Goswami to disallow the physical appearance of advocates and parties at the trial court level keeping in view the rapid spread of COVID-19 and to declare vacation from May 1 to June 1.
In a letter to the Chief Justice on Wednesday, AILU State president S. Rajendra Prasad and general secretary N. Srinivasa Rao said that though the filing of cases was being done in the High Court both physically and online, they were being heard only online. “Whereas, the functioning at the trial court level is by way of physical appearance of the advocates and parties,” they said.
In the districts, many advocates, clerks and their family members had succumbed to the virus, they said, and added that “it is, therefore, better not to allow physical appearance of the advocates and parties as there is the risk of getting infected.”
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The AILU office-bearers further requested the CJ to ask the government to give utmost priority to the vaccination to advocates and their family members as the advocates played a vital role in the administration of justice.
“The Chief Justice will do well to send a proposal to the government to extend financial support to the advocates in need,” they said.