Municipal Administration Minister Qamarul Islam expressed shock and dismay over the unruly incidents and behaviour of a section of advocates during their protest outside his house in Kalaburagi on Saturday.
“I did not expect such a shocking behaviour and use of abusive language and filthy expression from advocates during the protest… this was not expected from learned persons who practiced law,” Mr. Qamarul said. “After the protests and unsavoury incidents, the president and other office bearers of the Bar Association met me and expressed their regret,” he said.
Talking to presspersons here on Sunday, Mr. Qamarul said he did not want to say anything more, reiterating that he fully supported the demand for a Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) Bench in Kalaburagi city and would take up the issue with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during a meeting of Ministers convened in Belagavi on Monday prior to the beginning of the monsoon session of the legislature.
He said a delegation of legislators from the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, along with office bearers of the Bar Associations of the region, would also be meeting the Chief Minister and Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra to plead for sanctioning one more KAT Bench in Kalaburagi along with the one sanctioned at Belagavi.
Meanwhile, president of the Gulbarga Bar Association Vidyarani Bhat and secretary Veeresh Chigari told presspersons in Kalaburagi that a section of advocates had misbehaved with Mr. Qamarul and used abusive language. They also offered their apologies for the unruly incidents during the protests.
Mr. Chigari said the advocates would boycott indefinitely, all the courts in Kalaburagi, Bidar, Vijayapura, Raichur and Yadgir from Monday. They would also boycott court proceedings at the Kalaburagi Bench of the Karnataka High Court on Monday. Ms. Bhat said the delegation of the Bar Associations of Kalaburagi, Raichur, Yadgir, Bidar and Vijayapura were leaving for Belagavi to meet Mr. Siddaramaiah. The next course of the agitation would be based on the results of their visit to Belagavi, she said.
