Lucknow, Jul 22 The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday expressed serious concern over alleged hooliganism by a group of lawyers at a disputed property in Aishbagh here and questioned the police for remaining passive despite being present at the spot for nearly four hours.
A Lucknow bench of justices Rajan Roy and Manjive Shukla summoned the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) and the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Qaiserbagh) to appear before it on Thursday.
The court also directed the Lucknow Police Commissioner to join the proceedings through video conferencing after personally examining why effective action was not taken despite the presence of police personnel.
The court passed the order on a public interest litigation by advocate Saksham Singh. It also directed that the Bar Council of India and the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council be made parties in the case.
According to the petition, a video circulated on social media on July 7 purportedly showed dozens of men dressed as lawyers forcibly entering the premises of Dayanand Sewa Sansthan in Aishbagh, where a cricket practice facility and a marriage hall are being operated.
They allegedly assaulted workers, abused staff, pelted bricks and vandalised CCTV cameras.
An FIR lodged by Manorama Mishra names several advocates, including Amit Mishra, Rahul Shukla, Deepak Prakash, Arun Jaiswal and Anand Mohan Tiwari, the PIL said.
After watching the video footage submitted by the ACP, the bench observed that at least 10 to 15 police personnel were visible throughout the incident, while a large group of lawyers or persons dressed as lawyers freely moved inside the premises, allegedly trespassing and intimidating those present.
The court questioned why additional police force was not called and why no arrests were made if the alleged trespassers remained inside the premises from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm. The ACP informed the court that he reached the spot only after 2 pm and by that time the incident had ended.
Making strong observations, the bench said that the police personnel seen in the video appeared to be "quite friendly" towards the alleged transgressors and "visibly passive".
It added that it did not wish to say more at this stage, "except that the possibility of the local police personnel having facilitated the said illegalities cannot be ruled out". The court also recorded submissions made by members of the Bar that certain groups of lawyers keep track of disputed properties and promise to resolve such disputes through extra-legal means, bypassing the due process of law.
If true, the bench observed, such conduct not only brings the legal profession into disrepute but also compromises the rule of law.
The bench further noted that advocate Saurabh Kumar Verma, whose name has surfaced in another case relating to the alleged assault on a litigant and Delhi-based lawyers inside the Lucknow district court on July 21, was also stated to be present in this incident.
The court recorded that Verma is the junior vice-president of the Central Bar Association, while another accused, Harshit Dixit, is the brother of the association's general secretary Avneesh Dixit, describing the situation as "a disturbing scenario".
The high court directed the Lucknow Police Commissioner to ensure the security of petitioner Saksham Singh and ordered that the pen drive containing the video footage be preserved in a sealed cover along with a digital copy maintained by the registry.
The PIL has been tagged with the pending batch of petitions relating to the July 21 district court violence, and will be heard on July 23.
