HC reserves verdict on PIL against media, police

The Karnataka HC on Wednesday reserved its verdict on the public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the media and police for alleged attacks on advocates earlier last month.

A Division bench reserved their judgement on the PIL filed by Advocates Association of Bangalore (AAB) and individual advocates, after hearing the matter for three days subsequent to the Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen recusing himself from the matter on April 12.

Advocate General C Vijayshankar submitted, since investigation was already in progress on the matter by the DGP CID, there was no necessity for a CBI probe into it as sought by the petitioners. At this Justice Ajit Gunjal observed “What they (petitioners) want is a fair and just investigation.”

The Advocate General said one of the petitioners against whom cases have been registered was a AAB member. A counsel for the petitioners, senior counsel P S Rajagopal stated “let a non-partisan body (like the CBI) probe into it. As here is a unprecedented situation which calls for extraordinary remedies”.

At this, counsel for CBI C H Jadav stated that CBI was already overburdened with cases which led Justice Gunjal to remark “your job is only that. How can you say you are overburdened”.

In his objections to the submissions made by the Advocate General that “the AAB was trying to protect some advocates” and that AAB had “not approached with clean hands”, Senior Counsel Ravivarma Kumar representing AAB, termed these as “unsubstantiated allegations”.

“There is no reflection on the investigation that is being conducted on the matter in our submissions. What we are seeking is a just probe,” Kumar said. Sixty five persons, including 52 police personnel, were injured when lawyers went on a rampage on March 2 protesting the presence of media persons to cover the appearance of former minister and mining baron G Janardhan Reddy in a mining case in the city civil court complex.