“You first call off strike and then we will talk.” This is what Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Vikramajit Sen told a lawyer when he [lawyer] made a plea on behalf of the Advocates' Association, Bangalore, for initiation of suo motu case by the Karnataka High Court regarding March 2 incident at city civil court complex.
The lawyer made the submission when the Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice B.V. Nagarathna commenced sitting. He pointed out that the Madras High Court had initiated suo motu case on police action on the premises of that High Court a few years ago.
However, Chief Justice Sen said: “Your [AAB] president has let us [judges] down many a time. You have to do introspection. We want to know when you call off strike.” The Chief Justice also asked what was the need to initiate a suo motu case when many public interest litigations (PILs) had been already filed regarding the incident.
“What the court has to do with this. My colleagues have gone out of the way to help you [advocates]. You are now targeting my colleague [Referring association's recent demand for change of the high court judge, who is in-charge of city civil court administration]. How can you do that? What more should be done. Rethink on it. This is helping nobody. Please call off strike. Come back and tell us that strike is called off then we can go a step further…” the Chief Justice observed.
Advocates participate
Meanwhile, participation of advocates in the proceedings before the High Court improved on Monday with majority of courts witnessing about 60 to 70 per cent of presence of advocates for their cases.
However, the proceedings in the subordinate courts in Bangalore continued to affect for the sixth consecutive day for the boycott call given by the association demanding various actions by the State Government on the March 2 incident.
