Cuttack: Tension prevailed inside Orissa High court premises Monday as hundreds of members of the bar association staged demonstration and prevented the entry of lawyers owing allegiance to the ruling BJD’s legal front.
Apprehending law and order problem, the Registrar General of the high court had sought police protection and about 25 platoons of police forces were deployed on the HC premises.
The bar association of the Orissa High Court is on agitational path, paralysing the functioning of the court since August 29, demanding arrest of four police personnel for assaulting a lawyer August 28 last in the city.
The lawyers belonging to the Biju Janata Dal’s legal front who were supporting the stir, however, withdrew their support and decided to join the court Monday after the bar association served an ultimatum to burn the effigy of the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in front of bar association offices across the state.
As announced, the lawyers associated with the BJD legal front Monday tried to enter the court but were prevented by the striking lawyers leading to a scuffle between the two factions. Advocate Asim Amitav Das, advisor to the Biju Legal Front alleged that he was assaulted by the lawyers when he tried to enter the court premises and filed an FIR with the Lalbag police station.
On the other hand, the agitating lawyers alleged that activists of the Biju Yuva Bahini and some anti-socials brought by the BJD’s legal front had entered into the court premises to foil the agitation. The lawyers even caught hold of a Biju Yuva Vahini activist and handed him over to the Registrar General who later handed him over to the police.
Meanwhile, the High Court Bar Council in a resolution Monday urged the Chief Minister to resolve the issue by October 31 12 noon otherwise the lawyers would intensify the agitation across the state.
The Orissa High Court Bar Association has declared to burn effigies of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in front of 164 bar associations across the state October 31. The bar association condemned the action of the ruling BJD for trying to divide the lawyers and said the agitation will continue till the demand is fulfilled.
Reports reaching here said the members of the Balasore Bar Association locked the court gate and did not allow the judges to enter the court premises.
They did not allow District & Sessions Judge Ramashankar Hota to hold a camp court in Balasore jail. Similar protests were also reported from other bar associations from across the state.
However, in some places as directed by the high court, camp court was conducted inside the jail to take up the bail matters as several jails are jam packed with the trial prisoners due to the lawyers’ strike for last two months.
Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee President Niranjan Patnaik slammed the BJD government for not taking any initiative to resolve the lawyer-police conflict. In a statement, Patnaik said despite a two- month long strike by the lawyers, the state government has taken no steps to resolve the issue till date.
Rather the government is making the issue more complicated by making a fraction through its BJD lawyers’ forum.
The courts, he said, are not functioning due to lawyers’ strike and litigants are the worst sufferers of this conflict, adding the Chief Minister must intervene and make a way out for an out of court settlement.