New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday will give directions in a petition filed by journalist Abhijit Iyer Mitra expressing his disability to move Odisha High Court due to strike of the Orissa High Court Bar Association.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice AM Khanwilkar will give directions in the matter.
Earlier, the apex court had Thursday ordered the lawyers of the Bar Association and other connected associations to resume work so that the right of justice of a litigant is not affected.
However, the lawyers’ defied the order of the apex court and burnt effigies of Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of Orissa High Court. The lawyers claimed that the Supreme Court’s order was one-sided.
The top court had also directed the Odisha DGP to transfer the investigation of a case against police officials, who had allegedly beaten up a lawyer, to the IG Crime Branch.
Abhijit Iyer Mitra, charged for making derogatory remarks on Konark Sun Temple, had filed a petition in the apex court mentioning that due to the strike of lawyers he could not file an application in the Orissa High Court.
The courts in Odisha have not been functioning since August 29 when lawyers across the state went on strike following the alleged attack on advocate Debi Prasad Pattnaik by four policemen over a dispute.
The lawyers said that an FIR had been registered in the case but only two police personnel have been arrested while three are still at large.
PNN