Lawyers Refuse To End Stir, Want Cops Suspended

Lawyers Refuse To End Stir, Want Cops Suspended Dated : 23 Feb 2009, 0301 hrs IST, Source : TNN CHENNAI: Text: The get-back-to-work call by the chief justice of India (CJI) seems to have had little effect on Tamil Nadu’s lawyers. A day after the CJI stressed on the need to end the strike and avoid harassment of litigants, the state’s advocate associations reiterated that their members would continue to abstain from courts till top officials, including the director-general and Chennai city commissioner of police, are placed under suspension for their role in the clashes between lawyers and policemen on the Madras High Court campus. A decision to this effect was taken at a joint meeting of all top advocates’ associations, which met in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry’s premises. “We will not return to work unless the director-general of police and the commissioner of police are suspended. The then joint commissioner of police (north Chennai) and other officials directly involved in the February 19 operation inside the High Court should be arrested and suspended,” said Madras High Court Advocates Association president R C Paul Kanagaraj. The statement indicated an unwavering stance despite calls from sections of the fraternity, including senior advocates, to balance the need to redress grievances of lawyers along with the problems of litigants who are waiting for courts to open. “Lawyers should appeal to their colleagues, friends and their office bearers as I do through this letter that we have a duty to restore normalcy and address our grievances such as the police excesses in a manner known to law without inconveniencing the general public,” senior advocate V Prakash wrote to TOI. “Each one of us has to show the courage required to establish peace and preserve the rule of law.” The joint meeting of MHAA, Madras Bar Association, Women Lawyers’ Association and Law Association resulted in a 11-point resolution, which asked all the advocates injured in the clashes to lodge criminal complaints against individual police officials. Another resolution stated that no advocate in TN would appear on behalf of police officials, constables and government advocates in any judicial forum in the state. The meeting also wanted the court security to be entrusted with a neutral central agency, and added that a sitting judge of the High Court should probe the February 19 violence. A committee of judges appointed to restore normalcy appealed on Sunday to the legal fraternity not to do anything that would affect its functioning. “Issues concerning events of February 19 are being addressed,” a statement said. The Bar Council of India met in Delhi and decided to observe February 27 as Black Day throughout the country. It resolved to constitute a committee, which would visit Tamil Nadu and meet the chief minister and demand stern action against police officials responsible for the excesses. It would also seek withdrawal of all cases registered against lawyers, said its executive chairman R Dhanapal Raj.

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