Lawyers protest over Tis Hazari clash enters third day despite Bar Council’s appeal

"The fight of our self respect forced me to take this step. The threat by policemen has hurt our self respect," a lawyer who threatened to set himself ablaze said.

A day after the Bar Council of India (BCI) asked bar associations in Delhi to recall resolutions directing lawyers to abstain from court work and “end violence in Court premises immediately”, lawyers continued their protest and even stopped litigants from entering Saket court complex. However, at Tis Hazari court, the centre of last week’s violent clash between lawyers and police, litigants were greeted with biscuit packets by lawyers at the entrance.

Meanwhile at Rohini court, two lawyers have attempted suicide alleging police brutality. “The fight of our self respect forced me to take this step. The threat by policemen has hurt our self respect,” a lawyer who threatened to set himself ablaze said.

On Tuesday, the BCI came down heavily on lawyers who resorted to violence, especially against policemen, at Delhi’s Tis Hazari and Saket court complexes, and slammed these “acts of grave misconduct” and directed Bar associations to identify the lawyers since “hooliganism and violence” have “no place in the Bar”.

 

Underlining “we are tarnishing the image of the Institution by sparing such rowdy elements”, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and co-chairman Ved Prakash Sharma, in a letter to Bar associations of Delhi, called for an end to “violence in Court premises immediately” and recall of resolutions directing lawyers to abstain from court work.

The same day saw over 2,000 police personnel and their family members gathered outside the Delhi headquarters at ITO to protest the recent attacks against policemen by lawyers following a parking row last week. They ended their nearly 11-hour-long protest after receiving assurances from senior officers that their grievances would be addressed.

Earlier, taking suo motu cognizance of media reports on the clash between lawyers and policemen at the Tis Hazari court complex, the High Court had said that Justice (retd) S P Garg, a former judge of the court, would hold a judicial inquiry into the matter.

A special investigation team (SIT) of the crime branch, headed by Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, has recorded the statements of 11 policemen and six advocates injured in Saturday’s Tis Hazari clash to ascertain the sequence of events.

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