Hapur lathicharge: Lawyers’ strike continues after meeting with principal secretary fails

Lawyers’ boycott of courts continued across the state on Monday as a meeting between a delegation from the legal fraternity and the principal secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad failed to remove the stalemate over the former’s demands.

The meeting took place after the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh reversed its decision to call off the protest against the police action on Hapur lawyers on August 29. The delegation was led by Lucknow Bar Association president Suresh Pandey and general secretary Kuleep Narain Mishra.

“We met principal secretary Sanjay Prasad today with our set of demands. The meeting failed as the state government has not fulfilled any of our demands,” Mishra said.

The strike would continue Tuesday, Mishra added as lawyers abstained from work after a resolution was passed by the Bar Council the previous night.

“Whatever action the state government has taken against the Hapur cops was after the Allahabad high court’s order,” Mishra added.

The delegation had demanded compensation for Hapur lawyers (who were cane-charged by police personnel), an FIR against cops involved in the incident, the transfer of the district magistrate and superintendent of police, and the implementation of the Lawyers’ Protection Act.

Lawyers of the Allahabad high court and its Lucknow bench also supported the boycott. Work in the high court came to a standstill as lawyers there continued to boycott judicial work on a call given by the Bar Council, the apex body of lawyers in the state. Not just of the high court, lawyers at the district court, central administrative tribunal, debt recovery tribunal, company law tribunal, board of revenue court and all other judicial forums in Prayagraj also boycotted work.

According to Bar Council vice-chairman Anurag Pandey, there was resentment among lawyers across the state as the government had not taken any action on the demands made by the Council.

It may be pointed out that police cane-charged lawyers in Hapur on August 29 when they were protesting the registration of an FIR against a woman lawyer and her father after she had an accident with policemen on a motorcycle.

The Bar Council had first given a call for a three-day strike starting September 4. It decided to continue the strike as it accused the state government of not acting against the cops who cane-charged the lawyers.

Oudh Bar Assn prez in panel probing incident

The Allahabad high court (HC) on Monday clarified that the president of Oudh Bar Association in Lucknow will also be a member of a judicial committee constituted by the court in the wake of an ongoing agitation of lawyers. The panel will attempt to redress the grievances of lawyers regarding the police cane-charging lawyers in Hapur on August 29.

In an order dated September 9, the court had formed a judicial committee comprising three sitting judges of the HC— justice Manoj Kumar Gupta (chairman), justice Rajan Roy and justice Mohd Faiz Alam Khan. It also included the advocate general of Uttar Pradesh or his nominee (the chairman of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh and president of the High Court Bar Association) in the panel.

The court had also directed that it be informed about the actions taken on the first information report (FIR) lodged by the lawyers against the police personnel in regard to the incident.

On Monday, a division bench comprising chief justice Pritinker Diwaker and justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi said, “In order dated September 9, we had included the president of Allahabad High Court Bar Association in its members’ list, which included the president of Oudh Bar Association, Lucknow, as was our intent. However, to remove any scope for confusion in this regard, we explicitly provide that the president of Oudh Bar Association, Lucknow will also be a member of the said committee.”