'Provoked' by BJP leader, HC lawyers to go on with strike

A day after announcing that they would end their week-long strike in protest against the proposed creation of a separate bench for western Uttar Pradesh, advocates of the Allahabad High Court today went back on their decision claiming that they were "provoked and agitated" by a "mischievous" statement of a senior BJP leader which appeared in a Hindi daily.
In a joint statement, High Court Bar Association (HCBA) president Rakesh Pande and secretary C P Upadhyay said a decision was taken to "abstain from judicial work today as well as on Monday, December 22" to protest a statement of the BJP's state president Laxmikant Bajpai which appeared in a Hindi daily.

The news report had said that Bajpai had met some agitating lawyers of western UP, who have been agitating to press the demand for a separate bench for their region, and told them that he would consider fulfilment of their wish as his "greatest achievement" and that he would help them secure an appointment with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The HCBA statement said lawyers would now try to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Varanasi scheduled next week and request that "senior leaders of the BJP be asked to desist from making mischievous and provocative statements which try to politicize matters relating to the judiciary".