Lawyers’ strike to continue in Delhi district courts

New Delhi: Lawyers in Delhi district courts will continue to abstain from work on Wednesday to protest against their clash with police that took place on November 2, the bar association of all six district courts said on Monday.

Mahavir Singh Sharma, chairman of the coordination committee of the all-district courts bar association said the decision was taken in a meeting held on Monday wherein the lawyers stuck to their demand that the police personnel, who allegedly fired at advocates, be arrested. On Monday too, the lawyers abstained from work in all district courts.

The courts will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Gurpurab.

R.K. Wadhwa, president of the New Delhi district court bar association and member of the district courts bar association, which has called the strike, said no work was done in the district courts as the lawyers did not appear before the judges.

Meanwhile, advocates and personnel staff of the bar associations continued to carry out the security checks of people entering the Tis Hazari court premises.

However, some of the entrances were left unguarded and litigants entered the premises without proper security checks. Fearing a possible confrontation with the lawyers, police personnel deployed at the courtrooms to assist the judges came dressed in civil clothes to avoid being recognised.

The strike continued since a meeting of members of all district courts associations, representatives of Delhi Police and Lt-governor Anil Baijal, held on Sunday on the orders of the Delhi high court, failed to find a resolution, all district courts bar association general secretary Dhir Singh Kasana said.

“Despite our cooperation, no concrete step has been taken to arrest the police personnel who fired at advocates. So, there would be complete abstinence from work at all Delhi district courts. Our demand was that the police officers who fired at advocates be arrested. The police officials opposed it. So we will continue boycotting work,” Mr Kasana said.

Lawyers in the six district courts have been on strike since November 4 to protest against the clash.

In unprecedented protests by the Delhi Police, thousands of its personnel had laid siege outside the police headquarters for 11 hours on November 5 and staged a virtual revolt sparked by two attacks on their colleagues before calling off their stir following multiple appeals including from their chief.