Cops, lawyers should not fight with each other, says HC

Quashing a criminal case filed by a woman police constable against an advocate, also a woman, who used to park her car in front of Mahim police station here, the Bombay High Court has asked police personnel and lawyers not to fight with each other.
"Itcan'tbeforgottenthat advocates, police officers, public prosecutors and courts are stake holders in criminal administration of justice and they are expected to respect each other and not to fight," observed a bench of Justices V M Kanade and Nutan Sardessai in a recent order.
Advocate Vaijayanti Kalekar used to park her car in front of the police station. One day, she had an argument on the parking issue with a woman constable who alleged that the lawyer was constructing a parking shed for the vehicle.

Following the altercation between the two, a complaint was filed by the constable against the lawyer alleging that the latter had insisted that she would continue parking the car and said the constable was free to do whatever she wanted against her.
Kalekar was booked under IPC sections 353 (assault or using criminal force to deter a public servant from performing duty), 188 (disobedience to the order promulgated by public servant) and 506 (criminal intimidation). She moved the high court seeking quashing of the police complaint.
"In our view, even if statements made in the complaint are accepted on its face value, the ingredients of offences which are levelled against the applicant lawyer are not made out. Also, the applicant (lawyer) ought not to have behaved in the police station in a manner alleged by the constable.

"Without going into the correctness or otherwise of what is mentioned here, we are of the view that the allegations levelled against the applicant are not borne out from the statement made by the complainant," said the judges.
"A perusal of the statement of the complainant clearly discloses that the ingredients of the offences levelled against the applicant are not made out even if they are accepted on its face value," the court said while disposing of the application filed by the lawyer.