The Centre moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday urging it that its order for no coercive action against advocates following the lawyers-police clash at Tis Hazari Courts should not be applicable to subsequent incidents.
Notices issued
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar issued notices to the Bar Council of India, the apex body of lawyers and several other bar associations of the Capital on the Centre’s plea.
The court had on Sunday directed that no coercive action would be taken against any lawyer on the basis of FIRs lodged with regard to the November 2 incident.
The Centre has sought a clarification from the court that “the order dated November 3, 2019, is no impediment in taking any action in accordance with law to maintain law and order”.
During the brief hearing, the advocates representing various lawyers’ bodies urged the High Court to ban the media from showing videos of the recent incidents saying they could worsen the situation.
The Bench declined to pass any interim order and said the matter would be heard in detail on Wednesday. The lawyers, including Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, told the court that it was in the process of resolving the entire issue and everything would have been normalised in a day or two but senior police officers were making “provocative and threatening” statements on TV and Twitter.
The bar associations have opposed the application, saying that police was seeking the relief to harass the lawyers. The associations told the court that the entire legal fraternity cannot be held responsible for some stray incidents by persons who may or may not be lawyers.
