Lawyers, cops equally responsible for Feb 19 clash: Srikrishna

Lawyers, cops equally responsible for Feb 19 clash: Srikrishna New Delhi | Friday, Mar 6 2009 IST Justice B N Srikrishna, in his preliminary report on the Madras High Court lawyers-police clash submitted to the Supreme Court yesterday, has blamed both the lawyers and police for the February 19 clash. Justice Srikrishna has slammed the lawyers for behaving like hooligans in the High Court premises and also lashed out at the police for indulging in wanton use of force besides damaging court property. He also criticised the police for lathicharging the lawyers but, however, expressed his inability to continue with the judicial inquiry and informed the apex court of his decision. Justice Srikrishna, a retired judge of the Supreme Court in his 22-page interim report, noted: "My view, albeit prima facie, is that the soft-pedalling policy followed by the Madras High Court judges had led to the present piquant situation. "The lawyers appear to have been encourged by the wrong signals sent out and seemed to think that they could do anything and get away with it in the court premises," he said. "Regretfully, far from being upholders of the rule of law, the lawyers seem to have behaved as hooligans and miscreants because they seemed to be under the impression that because they are the officers of the court, they are immune from the process of law and that they could get away with any unlawful act without being answerable to the law enforcing agency. "It is most unfortunate that the soft policy adopted by the acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court and its administration sent out clearly a wrong message that encouraged and emboldened the lawyers into becoming law breakers. "Undoubtedly, the political cross-currents from the Sri Lankan Tamil issues to caste-based issues contributed and aggravated the situation. It should have been made clear to the lawyers from the beginning in no uncertain terms that whatever their political ideology, the court premises would not be utilised for airing them.'' -- (UNI) -- 06DI28.xml

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