Lawyers keep off work, may march to Parliament
NEWDELHI: District court lawyers kept off work on Monday after talks between them and police at the residence of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor on Sunday failed.
That was the second round of talks over violence that began on November 2 at the Tis Hazari Court Complex between lawyers and police. A local court on Monday sought compliance report from Delhi police in the FIRS related to clash at Tis Hazari Court. The court directed the police to file the report by November 20.
Meanwhile, Delhi lawyers are planning to renew their protest against police action on their colleagues with marches to Parliament and protests outside city courts. They have, however, not decided on when they would act.
A general house meeting of the lawyers and the bar members was held at the district courts on Monday during which many expressed their displeasure on decision to suspend the strike on Friday.
Dhir Singh Kasana, Secretary, Co-ordination committee of all district courts, said that they wanted to ensure that the government takes action against police personnel involved in the violence.
“There was a lot of anguish among the members of the bar on Monday when we conducted the General House meeting with advocates of respective district courts. We have decided to take the agitation further and are mulling to either march to the Parliament and gherao it. We are also considering formation of human chains in outside the courts, including the Supreme
Court and also India Gate. However, no decision has been taken today (Monday) on this and the further course of action would be decided either on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Kasana said.
The Bar Council of Delhi (BCD), in a statement, said that it is “totally disgusted” with the attitude of police officials at the meeting with L-G. It said that no action was taken against the erring officials.
“In normal course police would have arrested instantaneously, but in this case no arrest has been made even after expiry of 9 days. Lawyers are justified in their demand to arrest them but the police are adamant, rather provoking lawyers to resort to protest. We stand united with the legal fraternity in support of demands & respect their sentiments,” KC Mittal, chairman, Bar Council of Delhi said.
NEWDELHI: Fresh CCTV footage of the clash between the lawyers and the police on November 2 at Tis Hazari court surfaced on Monday. A 2 minutes 50 seconds video shows a man in white shirt and trousers, with his face covered with a handkerchief, bringing a white plastic sack and emptying out the objects outside the lock-up. At least four motorcycles are burning in the foreground, on either sides of the lock-up gate.
The video shows the man being joined by four-five lawyers who then start throwing the objects towards police personnel guarding the gate of the lock-up. Some more lawyers are seen in the crowd. A few seconds later, two bikes on fire explode within a gap of around 10 seconds, forcing the crowd of lawyers to run for safety.
At least half a dozen videos of the clash have come out in the last one week. The lawyers have accused the police of allegedly leaking “selective” videos with an intent to show them in poor light. On Monday, around 300 police personnel with DCP Monika Bhardwaj were deployed outside the Tis Hazari court after they received inputs that the agitating lawyers will block traffic movement on roads adjoining the court complex.