A majority of lawyers practising in the Madras High Court Bench here boycotted the court proceedings on Monday demanding revocation of an order passed by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu on July 30 suspending W. Peter Ramesh Kumar, president of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association (MMBA), from practising in any court for two years.
A section of them also burnt a copy of the suspension order and raised slogans condemning the Bar Council which had taken the action after an enquiry conducted on the basis of a reference made by the Bench’s Registrar (Judicial) in September 2010 stating that Mr. Kumar (then not an office-bearer) “made baseless allegations” while conducting a case before Justice S. Tamilvanan.
On Monday morning, the court proceedings began as usual when advocate N.G.R. Prasad made a representation before Justice R. Sudhakar to take up a writ petition seeking an interim stay of the suspension order. But the judge asked them to approach the Division Bench comprising Justice P. P. S. Janarthana Raja and Justice M. Duraiswamy.
The Division Bench, in turn, asked the Registry to post the matter before Justice Vinod Kumar Sharma. But within minutes, a group of lawyers marched towards court halls raising slogans and prevailed upon other lawyers to walk out. M. Thirunavukarasu, president of Madurai Bench High Court Advocates Association (MBHAA), said that it had been decided to file the writ petition in Chennai.
