The Bar Council of India ( >BCI ) has condemned the recent >brutal attack on lawyers in Jaipur and Chandigarh and called for an all-India strike on March 11. It took the decision at an emergent meeting of its general council here on Friday.
BCI secretary J.R. Sharma said Jaipur turned a battleground with the police manhandling lawyers who had put forward a 14-point demand for their rights, privileges and welfare.
BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, accompanied by executive chairman Apurba Kumar Sharma were in Jaipur to meet lawyers’ representatives, the injured advocates and the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court in this regard when the violence took place.
When lawyers were peacefully marching towards the Assembly in support of their demands on Wednesday, the police suddenly resorted to lathi charge, injuring 30.
On Thursday, the police entered the civil court campus and assaulted lawyers. Till now, over 90 lawyers had sustained injuries, three seriously.
Mr. Mishra apprised the Rajasthan Chief Justice about the true state of affairs on Thursday and on Friday. Mr. Mishra and BCI spokesperson S. Prabhakaran wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir seeking his immediate intervention and appropriate action against the guilty police officials. They demanded a judicial inquiry into the whole incident. They also condemned the assault on lawyers by the police in Chandigarh.
The Supreme Court Bar Association, in a resolution, condemned the lathi charge by the police on lawyers and expressed serious concern over the incident.
