Allahabad High Court issues Criminal Contempt notices to ten district court lawyers here. Restrains their entry in Court.
In a major development, while taking a serious note of assault of litigants inside chamber of civil judge, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday issued criminal contempt notice to ten advocates and also restrained them from entering the district court, Prayagraj after the submission of the report of the district judge. Earlier, on April 30, this court had restrained two lawyers from entering the court premises for their involvement in the same incident.
While passing the above directives, a division bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Mohd Azhar Husain Idrisi observed, “The incident in this case has to be viewed with utmost seriousness. This court cannot allow the court proceedings to be obstructed in a manner that litigants are brutally thrashed in the court room and the presiding officer has to flee to her chambers for her safety. This type of aggressive and violent conduct in the court will cause a virtual collapse of the system. This court cannot be a silent spectator to events of this kind. A clear and unequivocal message must go to unscrupulous persons that incident of this kind would not be tolerated and shall be dealt with sternly”.
The court also called upon the commissioner of police, Prayagraj to ensure that adequate police force is made available on the direction of district judge, Prayagraj, to allow smooth functioning of the court.
The court also directed the commissioner of police, Prayagraj to authorize a responsible officer, not below the rank of assistant commissioner of Police, Prayagraj to specify the criminal history of all the persons against whom notices are issued in the present contempt matter. The status of the investigation or the action taken in that regard shall also be specifically disclosed, the court said in its order passed on May 13.
The court has fixed May 27 as the next hearing of this case.
The court passed this order while acting on a reference sent by the Prayagraj district judge. Earlier, in the same matter, the court on April 30 had restrained two lawyers from entering the Prayagraj district court for their alleged act of assault on a litigant.
On Monday, the names of an additional 10 advocates involved in the alleged incident came to the court’s notice in a report of the district Judge, Prayagraj submitted to the high court in pursuant to this division bench’s April 30th order.
On April 29, during the course of argument of a case in Prayagraj district court, some lawyers had assaulted the litigants in the court of civil judge. The presiding officer left the court and entered her chamber for safety. Thereafter,a when the litigants in order to save themselves rushed to the chamber of presiding officer, the lawyers entered the chamber and assaulted them there also. The presiding officer recorded the incident in her order and thereafter, the district judge sent reference to high court.
