The Haryana Govt.& Uttar Pradesh Govt. have submitted before the High Court of Delhi that they are allowing the Lawyers & other staff, who want to visit Delhi for Court & legal work, by way of e-passes.

Haryana Govt submitted that it has agreed to issue weekly e-passes to all Lawyers.
UP Govt, in its affidavit filed on Sunday, said that Advocates residing in Gautam Buddh Nagar & Ghaziabad who want to travel to Delhi to attend their private offices can apply to the Nodal Officer of respective districts for e-pass for issuance of the same.

The Bar Council of Delhi had approached the HC raising concern over the restrictions imposed by the neighbouring states to advocates residing there over commute to their private offices in Delhi.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Acharya, during the last hearing on the matter, had assured the Court that an endeavour would be made to resolve the grievances raised in the petition to permit lawyers to cross the border to attend their private offices in Delhi.

In the plea, Bar Council of Delhi Chairman KC Mittal raised the issues of Lawyers, who are residing in the neighbouring towns of UP & Haryana, practicing in Delhi & wanted to attend their offices to prepare for their cases.

KC Mittal, during the last hearing, submitted that in view of guideline 7(F) issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on May 1, 2020, operation of private offices has been permitted.

He said, "As such lawyers within Delhi & outside Delhi are entitled to come to their office & attend to their work. The lawyers residing in NCR aren't being allowed to cross the border by Haryana & Uttar Pradesh, though they are bound by the guidelines issued by MHA dated May 1, 2020, & the movement of lawyers cannot be restricted in violation of Article 19(1)(d)".

The plea said that the Govts of Haryana & Uttar Pradesh are not permitting Lawyers to cross the borders to reach their offices & cited Union of India statement according to which Chartered Accountants & Advocates cannot be prevented from attending their offices.

As per the revised guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the opening of private offices, advocates cannot be prevented from coming to their respective offices, the plea said.

It said that Lawyers residing in different towns of UP & Haryana are entitled to enter Delhi & open their offices & respective Govts, their officials & agents can't prevent the advocates from crossing the border from their place of residence to attend their offices. 

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