Lawyers' strike to continue in Delhi district courts

Lawyers in Delhi district courts will continue to abstain from work on Wednesday to protest against their clash with police that took place on November 2, a lawyers' body of all six district courts said on Monday.

Mahavir Singh Sharma, chairman of the All District Courts Bar Association said the decision was taken in a meeting held on Monday wherein the lawyers stuck to their demand that the police personnel, who fired at advocates, be arrested.

On Monday, the lawyers abstained from work in all the district courts.

The courts will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Gurpurab.

R K Wadhwa, president of the New Delhi District Court Bar Association and member of the district courts bar association which has called the strike, said no work took place in the district courts as the lawyers did not appear before the judges.

The strike continued since a meeting of members of all district courts associations, representatives of Delhi Police and Lt Governor Anil Baijal, held on Sunday on the orders of the Delhi High Court, failed to find a resolution, All District Courts Bar Association general secretary Dhir Singh Kasana said.

"Despite our cooperation, no concrete step has been taken to arrest the police personnel who fired at advocates. So, there would be a complete abstinence from work at all Delhi district courts. Our demand was that the police officers who fired at advocates be arrested. The police officials opposed it. So we will continue boycotting work," Kasana said.

The tension between police personnel and lawyers had been building up since November 2 when a clash over a parking dispute led to at least 20 security personnel and several advocates being injured.

Lawyers in the six district courts have been on strike since November 4 to protest against the clash.

In unprecedented protests by the Delhi Police, thousands of its personnel had laid siege outside the police headquarters for 11 hours on November 5 and staged a virtual revolt sparked by two attacks on their colleagues before calling off their stir following multiple appeals including from their chief.