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current affairs






                 he  clashes  between  law    Cops                        coercive action against lawyers.                                               but after seeing Delhi Police’s conduct,
                 practitioners and law en-                                   Advocates are officers of the court                                         it cannot “sit tight over the matter”. The
                 forcers in New Delhi have                                and are bound by a code of conduct                                             council alleged that the policemen re-
                 prompted the Bar Council
         the legal institution into disrepute.   The  versus              against offending policemen and law-                                           threatened to “smash and kill lawyers”.
         T of India (BCI) to ask various                                  and should not have taken the law into                                         mained “absent from duty, shouted slo-
                                                                                                                                                         gans, used filthy language” and openly
                                                                          their own hands. Action must be taken
         Bar bodies to identify lawyers who are
         indulging in hooliganism and bringing
                                                                                                                                                         The BCI, in its letter, also demanded the
                                                                          yers, both.  The home ministry and the
         trigger in this case has been a video go-                        government have to intervene to work                                           formation of a high-level committee to
                                                                          out a mechanism where differences be-
                                                                                                                                                         find out who were involved in “plan-
         ing viral on social media sites showing                          tween two pillars of the criminal justice                                      ning the illegal protest of police yester-
         one policeman on a motorbike alleg-  men in                      system do not descend into criminality                                         day”.  “Our demand is to arrest the guilty
         edly being repeatedly slapped and el-                            and chaos.                                                                     police officials within a period of one
         bowed by lawyers.                                                   The Bar Council of India has come                                           week, failing which we shall resort to
           It would be unwise to blame men in                             down hard on the police, saying the                                            peaceful dharna for the arrest of these
         black or cops for the clashes because   black                    protest seemed to be “politically mo-                                          people and for proper disciplinary ac-
         both the police and lawyers consider                             tivated”, termed it the “darkest day in                                        tion against them. The Bar stands unit-
         themselves privileged. Little doubt                              the history of independence”, and de-              Both lawyers and            ed,” said the BCI statement.       Senior officers of the
         when lawyers and policemen clash,                                manded the arrest of police officers in-
         there are going to be sparks. In this case                       volved in  Tis Hazari clash. The lawyers            police are very                ater hearing a petition filed by the   organisation may
         lawyers allegedly hit policemen and   The rift between police and   are so upset that two lawyers in Rohini         important for the               ministry of home affairs on the   encourage and boost
         damaged several vehicles and when   lawyers widens, bringing     District Court tried to kill themselves.                                       L Tis Hazari clash, the Delhi High
         police force and their families protest-                         One lawyer, Ashish Choudhary claim-             society. The situation         Court declined to order a modification   the morale of the
         ed, the lawyers struck work. The Delhi   both institutions to disrepute,   ing that reputation of lawyers had been   of conflict amongst        of its order.  The order had asked Delhi   force by adequate
         High Court asked police to not to take   reports tehelka bureau  tarnished doused himself with petrol                                           Police to not take any coercive action
                                                                                                                           them is unfortunate.          against lawyers while directing transfer   assurances to them
                                                                                                                           I hope the situation          of special commissioner Sanjay Singh   that they have
                                                                                                                                                         and additional deputy police commis-
                                                                                                                            improves soon. We            sioner Harendra Singh. The court also   complete support of
                                                                                                                          have worked for both           appointed a judicial inquiry panel to   their seniors and that
                                                                                                                                                         probe the clash. Effectively, it restricts
                                                                                                                            police and lawyers           the police from taking any coercive    the rule of law will
                                                                                                                                                         action against lawyers over clash. As
                                                                                                                                — Arvind Kejriwal,       the lawyer-police-standoff persisted,       prevail
                                                                                                                                Delhi Chief Minister     Delhi’s lieutenant governor Anil Baijal
                                                                                                                                                         held a meeting with police commis-        — Karnal Singh,
                                                                                                                                                         sioner Amulya Patnaik and other top     DPRGOA president
                                                                                                                         before his colleagues stopped him.    officers.
                                                                                                                         Other lawyer, Rohit Pathak threat -  The  protesting  lawyers  do  not    was captured in a video being repeat-
                                                                                                                         ened to jump off the top of a building in    appear to be in a mood to relent in the   edly slapped and elbowed by lawyers.
                                                                                                                         the complex.                    confrontation triggered when a dispute   It  is  worth  mentioning  that  the
                                                                                                                           Lawyers in Delhi have boycotted   over a lawyer parking his car at the Tis   Law Commission of India had recom-
                                                                                                                         work and prevented litigants from    Hazari complex flared into violence,   mended a slew of amendments to the
                                                                                                                         entering the premises.  Proceedings at   including a police baton charge and   Advocates Act (Regulation of Legal
                                                                                                                         Patiala House Court, Tis Hazari District   at least two shots fired. Twenty-one   Profession), 1961. The Commission had
                                                                                                                         Court, Karkardooma District Court,   policemen and eight lawyers were    observed that advocates’ unprofes-
                                                                                                                         Saket District Court, Dwarka District   injured in the clash, according to the   sional conduct, such as going on ‘fre-
                                                                                                                         Court and Rohini District Court have   police count.             quent strikes’ to protest over ‘irrel -
                                                                                                                         remained stalled as the lawyers went   Around 3,000 policemen and po-  evant issues’, had reached ‘terrifying
                                                                                                                         on strike to protest the police action   licewomen took part in protest, a dem-  proportions’. Though the amendments
                                                                                                                         and alleged use of force on advocates.    onstration of anger over an assault on   have not seen the light of day amid stiff
                                                                                                                           In a statement issued in the after-  members of the force by lawyers at the  resistance from the lawyers, it is be-
                                                                                                                         math of the unfortunate clash, the BCI   Saket district court on Monday and an   yond doubt that the profession needs a
                                                                                                                         chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said   expression of their resentment over   self-regulatory mechanism.
                                                                                                                         that the Council had asked the Bar    senior officers for not rising to their
                                                                                                                         Association of Delhi to call off the strike,  support. One policeman on a motorbike   letters@tehelka.com


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