Delhi: Angry lawyers gather outside district courts

Scores of angry lawyers gathered outside the district courts in Rohini and Saket on Wednesday, a day after Delhi Police personnel laid an 11-hour siege outside the Police Headquarters.

TV visuals showed a man in standing on top of the high-rise court building Rohini in an apparent suicide bid.

As lawyers raised slogans, litigants could be seen standing outside the gates of the courts, waiting to enter but not being allowed to do so.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the coordination committee of All Bar Associations in Delhi had said lawyers would continue to boycott work on Wednesday, notwithstanding a Bar Council of India appeal to end their strike.

Mahavir Sharma condemned Tuesday's protest by thousands of police personnel against the alleged attack by lawyers on them and said the strike will continue till the "guilty officers" were arrested.

"The strike will continue till justice is met. Litigants will be given easy access to court but lawyers would not be appearing in hearings. Police personnel be present at courts premises tomorrow; we do not have any problem with that. We want a fair investigation against Monday's incident of alleged attack on a police officer by a lawyer at Saket court.

"Despite the Delhi police being a disciplined force, they held such strong protest today. It was done to divert the attention from the actual culprits and to save their seniors who were at fault," he said.

Police protests were triggered by two attacks on their colleagues, one on Monday outside Saket District Court and another on Saturday at the Tis Hazari Courts Complex after a parking dispute between an on-duty policeman and a lawyer which led to at least 20 security personnel and several advocates being injured.

Two FIRs were registered against unidentified persons, who were seen in a video hitting a uniformed policeman on a motorcycle with his elbow and slapping him outside the Saket court.

-PTI

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