The Hindu : Gulbarga advocates to continue court boycott

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 15, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Gulbarga advocates to continue court boycott

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA Sept. 14. The Gulbarga Bar Association (GBA) today reversed the decision taken earlier to end the court boycott from Monday and decided to continue the protest till September 20.

The three-hour general body meeting of the association saw an acrimonious debate between advocates opposing the court boycott and those in favour of continuing the agitation till "something positive" was achieved on their demand for setting up a Bench of the High Court in Gulbarga.

The first reaction to the decision of the general body by a section of the advocates was an open declaration by two senior advocates to resign from their membership of the association and attend the court proceedings from Monday.

However, the president of the GBA, Kashinath Motakpalli, and its general secretary, Avinash Uploankar, tried to play down the threat saying that there was no discord among members of the association.

Mr. Motakpalli and Mr. Uploankar told The Hindu that they would persuade the two senior advocates to withdraw their threat in the overall interests of maintaining unity for achieving their demand for a HC Bench.

The decision to reverse the earlier decision taken by a group of advocates on Thursday last and start a relay hunger strike in front of the court complex from Monday came after a section of the junior advocates opposed the decision, which was taken bypassing the general body of the GBA.

Meanwhile, it was also decided at the meeting to send one more delegation to meet the office-bearers of Raichur, Bellary, Bijapur, and Bagalkot districts to make yet another attempt to enlist their support.

Some of the members who spoke at the meeting felt that the GBA should give up its demand for establishing a Bench in Gulbarga and instead agree for a mutually accepted location in Hyderabad Karnataka.

It was decided to sent one more delegation to Bangalore to meet the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, N.K. Jain, and the Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, to press for the demand for setting up a Bench in Hyderabad Karnataka.

Our Bidar Staff Correspondent reports:

The Bidar Bar Association has decided to end boycott of courts and observe a relay hunger strike from Monday to press its demand for a High Court Bench in Gulbarga. This was decided at the association's meeting on Sunday.

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