The Hindu : New Delhi News : Lawyers of all Delhi district courts on strike

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Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009
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Lawyers of all Delhi district courts on strike

Staff Reporter

Protest against recent amendments to Criminal Procedure Code

– Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Thin attendance: This here is the scene at Delhi’s Patiala House courts during the lawyers’ strike on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Lawyers at all five district courts in the Capital abstained from the courts on Tuesday in protest against recent amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.).

The Coordination Committee of the All Bar Associations of Delhi that has been spearheading the agitation against the amendments for the past one month had issued the strike call.

The Capital’s bar associations are agitated particularly over deletion of the provision for arrest of the accused in cases where sentences run up to seven years.

They argue that this particular amendment would lead to an increase in crime as the accused would no more have the fear of being arrested and sent to jail.

According to Rajiv Khosla, spokesperson of the Coordination Committee, there were no appearances by lawyers in any of the five district courts on Tuesday.

There was very thin presence of lawyers and clients on the courts’ campus as they preferred to remain indoors in view of the call for abstention from the courts.

Presiding officers just adjourned cases listed for hearing to further dates.

Meanwhile, Mr. Khosla said lawyers from across the country would march down to Parliament on Wednesday in protest against the amendments.

Lawyers from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have already arrived in Delhi to take part in the march.

The Delhi High Court Bar Association has also extended its support to the ongoing agitation by the Capital’s district courts’ lawyers but it is not in favour of abstention from courts.

Bar Association

Office-bearers of the High Court Bar Association will on Wednesday sit on a hunger strike outside the Court premises.

Besides amendments to the Code, the High Court Bar Association is also opposing enactment of the Limited Liability Partnership Bill- 2008 by which foreign legal entities have been allowed to establish and run their business in the country.

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