Bombay High Court calls off hearing till later as lawyer removes face mask, violates SOPs

In an unprecedented move, the Bombay High Court called off hearing a case after a lawyer removed his face mask inside a courtroom. Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan referred to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) laid down by the high court at the time of resumption of physical hearing of cases.

On January 11, the Bombay High Court had issued an SOP, setting out guidelines for social distancing to be followed by lawyers while appearing for physical hearings. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the courts had been conducting hearings online, through video interfacing. On February 22 , a single-judge bench of Justice Chavan was hearing an appeal matter during which the appellant's advocate removed his mask in the courtroom contrary to guidelines. Referring to the SOPs laid down by the high court at the time of resumption of physical hearing of cases, Justice Chavan said that wearing a face mask all the time is compulsory.

As per PTI, Justice Chavan who allows only lawyers appearing in a case called out to them to enter his courtroom while other lawyers and parties waited in the adjoining room for their matter to come up as per serial numbers. The HC and all subordinate courts in Maharashtra, except Pune, had resumed in-person hearings in December after a gap of eight months.

READ | Anand Mahindra & Dr Shriram Nene Not Fans Of Man's Jugaad In Using Face-mask To Cover Eyes

READ | German Chancellor Angela Merkel Forgets To Wear Face Mask, Video Surfaces Online

COVID-19 Cases Surge In Maharashtra

On February 27, Maharashtra has reported 8,623 new novel coronavirus cases taking the state's COVID-19 tally to 21,46,777. At present, there are 72,530 active cases in the state. With 3648 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 20,20,951. 

51 deaths — 7 from Nagpur, 6 each from Ahmednagar and Amravati, 4 each from Buldhana and Mumbai, three each from Pune and Akola, two each from Beed, Solapur, Jalgaon, Nashik, Panvel, and Navi Mumbai, and one each from Pimpri Chinchwad, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Latur, and Osmanabad were reported on Saturday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 27 occurred in the last 48 hours, 19 in the last week, and the rest from the period before. Until now, a total of 52,092 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 1,61,99,818 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 3,34,102 persons are under home quarantine, 3084 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centers. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate, and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 13.25 percent, 94.14 percent, and 2.43 percent respectively. While a total of 11,87,023 healthcare and frontline workers have been inoculated in Maharashtra so far, 1,58,658 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

READ | 'Wife’s Refusal To Make Tea No Provocation For Assault': Bombay HC Convicts Guilty

READ | As India Gears For Phase 2 Of Vaccination; See List Of Co-morbidities For Those Above 45