The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government and the Railways to allow lawyers to travel by local trains in Mumbai on an "experimental basis" from September 18 till October 7 to attend physical hearings of cases in the high court.

The Western Railway and the Central Railway are running selected suburban train services only for essential services, as identified by the state government, in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said lawyers who have cases to attend must write to the high court registrar. The registrar will confirm the lawyer's claim and issue a certificate, based on which the Central Railway and the Western Railway will issue a pass or ticket to the lawyer just for that particular day.