Lawyers-police clash: HC grants judicial commission time till May 29 to complete probe

The Delhi High Court Monday gave time till May 29 to its judicial inquiry commission, set up to probe the clash between lawyers and police on November 2 at Tis Hazari court complex here, to complete investigation.

The order by a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar came on a letter sent to the high court by the commission, headed by Justice (retired) S P Garg, seeking more time for the reason that it became operational only on November 15 as the Delhi government had provided it with the necessary infrastructure by November 14.

Since November 15, it has examined 55 witnesses and 104 more remain to be examined and there is a possibility that the number of witnesses may go up as the probe continues, the commission has said in its letter.

While granting the commission time till May 29, the bench also listed on that date an application moved by the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) urging the court to ask the commission to conduct a through inquiry into the protest by police officers at ITO here on November 5.

Alternatively, BCD has also sought directions to the Centre to carry out a time bound probe into the demonstration by the police officers.

The lawyers' body has claimed in its plea that the police officers, during their protest, shouted slogans, uttered abusive language and threatened lawyers with dire consequences.

In unprecedented protests by the Delhi Police, thousands of its personnel had laid siege outside its headquarters for 11 hours on November 5 and staged a virtual revolt sparked by two attacks on their colleagues by the lawyers