Lucknow: Lawyers across Uttar Pradesh abstained from judicial work and burnt effigies for the second day on Tuesday in protest against the police lathi-charge on advocates in Hapur district last week.
Despite a request by the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court, members of the court's bar association also decided to abstain from work. "We are continuing our protest. On Tuesday, lawyers across the state burnt the effigies of the director general of police (DGP) and principal secretary (Home) on the district court campuses," General Secretary of Lucknow Bar Association Kuldeep Narain Mishra told PTI.
In Prayagraj, advocates burnt effigies of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the district court. "Under the leadership of district advocates association president Girish Tiwari, the lawyers protested and burnt effigies of the chief minister in the court premises," association member Rajeev Singh said. High Court Bar Association president Ashok Kumar Singh said advocates of the High Court also abstained from work in protest against the Hapur incident.
Police had allegedly lathi-charged lawyers on August 29 when they were protesting against the registration of a case against a woman advocate and her father. The case was registered following a confrontation between the woman lawyer and police when she was going to Ghaziabad in her car.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Pratinkar Dewakar and Justice M C Tripathi had told the lawyers that courts would start functioning from Tuesday and requested them to resume work. The additional advocate general had also informed the court that in view of the lawyers' demand, retired district judge Hari Nath Pandey has been appointed as the chairman of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the Hapur incident.
The court had asked the authorities concerned not to take any coercive action against any lawyer, whether named or not in the incident. On the lawyers' demand of transferring officials concerned, the court said it cannot pass an order at this stage as the SIT report is awaited. But, the High Court Bar Association in an emergency meeting of the lawyers' body on Monday night decided that they would abstain from judicial work on Tuesday as well. According to a release, the members of the association expressed their anger as no action has been taken against the guilty in the Hapur incident.
General Secretary of Lucknow Bar Association Kuldeep Narain Mishra told PTI, "We are continuing our protest. On Tuesday, lawyers across the state will burn the effigies of the director general of police (DGP) and principal secretary (Home) on the district court campuses." According to reports, lawyers in Muzaffarnagar, Kaushambi, Bhadohi, Kannauj, Ballia and Rampur also held protests.
In Muzaffarnagar, District Bar Association president Anil Jindal said lawyers are not satisfied with the SIT set up by the government as there is no representation of lawyers in it. Advocates of Kaushambi district burnt effigies of officials in front of the district court gate and raised slogans against the administration.
Under bar association president Vijay Kumar Saraswat, lawyers in Kannauj held a demonstration and raised slogans against the police. In Ballia, the striking lawyers alleged that the police were working in an arbitrary manner and demanded that the case filed against the lawyers be withdrawn and the injured advocates compensated.
Led by bar association leader in Rampur, Shyam Lal, lawyers raised slogans against police and burnt effigies even though the security men tried to scuttle the protest. (PTI)
