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Allahabad advocates on the warpath

Newspaper office vandalised, roads blocked

ALLAHABAD: Protesting a reported move to create a separate Bench of the Allahabad High Court in western Uttar Pradesh, advocates of the Court on Friday vandalised a Hindi newspaper's's office, blocked roads and burnt an effigy of Union Law Minister H. R. Bharadwaj just before his visit here.

They also disrupted preparations for a function on the High Court premises in which the Minister was to be the chief guest by tearing curtains, smashing flower pots and dumping spittoons full of betel juice, officials said.

Mr. Bharadwaj later arrived in the city on a two-day visit, during which he would be meeting the Bar Association and the Congress legal cell, and headed straight for the Circuit House.

The lawyers, who had planned a protest earlier, were further incensed by a report in the daily that in view of their opposition to a permanent Bench, the Centre has decided to set up a ``Circuit Bench'' to enable judges to hear cases in districts to clear the backlog. They said it would eventually lead to creation of a permanent Bench.

Before blocking traffic on the national highway, where they burnt an effigy of the Minister, the advocates stormed into the Hindi daily's office and damaged some computers and furniture and broke windowpanes, officials said.

The Rapid Action Force cleared the road blockade and chased away the lawyers, but they re-assembled and set afire a number of used tyres, bringing traffic to a halt.

High Court Bar Association president C. L. Pandey tried to pacify the lawyers saying he had met Mr. Bharadwaj at Varanasi airport and was assured that he would ``contradict'' the news report.

While advocates here are opposing it, those in Meerut, Ghaziabad and Agra are in favour of a circuit bench. - .

PTI

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