Written by Malarthamil.
Malarthamil is a civil engineer and writer-poet inspired by Thirukkural – a classical Tamil poetry that expounds various aspects of life.
The recent police attack on the Madras High Court lawyers in the southern Indian city of Chennai is known to have been premeditated by the central and state governments in an apparant effort to divert attention from the flaring Sri Lankan issue in the state.
Prior to the violent incident in the Madras High Court campus in which several members of the state judiciary and public were injured and their properties damaged, there were several peaceful protests across the Tamil Nadu state to draw attention to the plight of the Tamil civilians getting killed in the carpet bombing and cluster bombing by the Sri Lankan forces in the war ravaged neighboring country of Sri Lanka.
While these protests were by large peaceful, there were stray incidents of buses being torched by unknown elements. Self immolations by individuals were also on the rise and have caused a psychological stress among public who are puzzled at the insensitivity shown by the central and state governments on the issue.
Inspite of the public outcry and no action by the government in response, peace prevailed in the state. The public transportation, government and private establishments were all fuctioning without any disruption. The Lawyers protest though, had stalled the functioning of the judiciary system in the state. It was a deliberate attempt by the lawyers to draw the attention of the entire nation. The lawyers drew parallels to their protest with Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement.
While the state and central governments could afford to ignore all other protests by the people, it could not brush off the lawyers boycott, since the judiciary system was coming to a grinding halt and becoming a major irritant.
Therefore there was a compulsion for the government to act immeidately and contain the lawyers protest. From the detailed accounts of the incident it is evident that the violent attacks on the lawyers was planned by the central government of India and executed by the officers of the Tamil Nadu state government with the knowledge of the government machinery. It may not be a surprise, if we come to know that the Judicial authorities in New Delhi were briefed prior to the incident on possible use of force. The CBI enquiry can only be seen as a part of the enacted drama in the post drama session.
Now the voices on the Sri Lankan crisis have been silenced. The Madras High Court incident is being referenced as a Police – Lawyer clash. Few opinioated media are engaged in the character assasination of the lawyers. The lawyers are now suddenly projected as being dishonest and unruly . The pundits at power in Delhi and Chennai have achieved what they wanted with the help of few misleading media elements.
Obviously people have been defeated in this deceitful democracy. Again the Sri Lankan Tamils have been orphaned.
Tags: chennai, High Court, Judges, Lawyers, Police, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, tamils- Ajit Sarkar murder case: Supreme Court asks CBI to arrest Pappu Yadav
- Supreme Court pulls up ‘anti-poor’ Govt., refutes to rein in Delhi’s cycle rickshaws
- Oz school director fraud trial: Prosecution witness seeks to wear ‘burka’ in court
- Sohrabuddin case: CBI challenges lower court order on Amit Shah’s remand
- Toronto court frees Canadian terror suspect Abdullah Khadr
14 Comments
It was a ploy by the political top brass to divert the attention from Sri Lankan issue. I think they have fairly succeeded in that… Now the demand of the lawyers is to suspend police officials and NOT ‘stop the Sri Lankan war.’
More than 6 HC judges were attacked by the police on 19.2.2009 incident and they are still suffering in silence. After reading the above report the reason for the judges’ silence is clear. They might have understood that everything is pre-planned and even the supreme court would not come to their rescue. That is what happening now by appointing a commissioner to advice the lawyers to go back to work which was not at all his assignment.
Now the big question is, will the judiciary dare to pass any adverse order in a case against any government and its corrupt ministers in future?
Even if the boycott is withdrawn, can the lawyers and public depose confidence on the judiciary in the current situation?
Lets wait and see.
Looks like there is no update on this blog after the Sreekrishna report :)
The lawyers have been exposed by the report. Shame on them.
in my earlier post I have stated:
//More than 6 HC judges were attacked by the police on 19.2.2009 incident and they are still suffering in silence. After reading the above report the reason for the judges’ silence is clear. They might have understood that everything is pre-planned and even the supreme court would not come to their rescue. That is what happening now by appointing a commissioner to advice the lawyers to go back to work which was not at all his assignment.//
The above post becomes true as the Supreme Court sent the report to high court, Chennai.
Anyways, as usual the media is presenting the picture against the lawyers and public are believing it. I am told that the report of Srikrisna has detailed account of police violence, which is going to expose the police before the CBI enqury and related case in the HC. Lets wait and see.
Justice Sri Krishna recommended to frame guidelines for the conduct of the lawyers. We welcome it we don’t support the errant lawyers.
BUT,
who is going to take action against this and where to get justice if justice fails????
Excerpts from Justice Sri Krishna Report:
(the first half of the report is describing the unruly acts of pro LTTE and politically affiliated lawyers for which guide lines recommended)
this is 2nd half of the report:
“…Once the policemen were given the order to lathi
charge the unruly mob of lawyers to quell them, it would appear
that the -police interpreted it as a license to unleash mayhem at
will. They chased the lawyers on the ground floor, along the
corridors on the first floor and beat them up mercilessly. The
policemen behaved in the same fashion as the unruly mob of
lawyers. The exchange of stones between the lawyers and the
policemen continued unabated. The policemen who undoubtedly
had lawful authority to subdue the rioting mob, are seen using
force disproportionate to the occasion and even after some of the
rioters had actually been overpowered and apprehended. They
continued to lash out lathi blows’ on the lawyers apprehended by
them. They threw stones at the lawyers, at the window panes of
the Court premises, and also indulged in wanton destruction of and
damage to the vehicles parked in the High Court premises. They
chased the lawyers into the Court premises along the corridors
and also on the first floor of the Court premises hitting blindly at
them with lathis. Despite instructions that during a lathi charge
the lathi blow should be aimed at parts of the body other than the
head, the police freely rained lathi blows on the heads of the
lawyers, causing head injuries to a number of lawyers. There was
plenty of blood shed in the quadrangle, along the corridors and
also inside the office premises where the police appeared to have
entered apparently to look for the rioters. The police barged into
the court rooms of the Judges of the Small Causes Court and
family court within the High Court complex and indulged in
deliberate destruction of the tables, chairs, fans, computers and
other articles within the Court premises. When I went round the
premises of the High Court complex for inspection, . I noticed
extensive damage to the Court’s properties as glass panes were
smashed, the doors of the Xerox machine room were smashed,
one Xerox machine was damaged, one Computer was damaged,
and fan blades at one place were twisted out of shape. The court
staff were unanimous that all this damage was inflicted by the
policemen. The police did not spare the children’s creche also from
the hail of stones. Luckily, however, no child was injured though it
did traumatize some of the children in the creche and the ayahs
attending to them.
Not satisfied with beating up the lawyers within the
Court premises, the rampaging police staff systematically ran
through the chambers of lawyers within the High Court premises
causing wanton damage to the premises, pulling out suspected
lawyers and beating them. They also went to the lawyers’
Chambers situated on the Lingi Chetty Street, Thambu Chetty
Street, Armenian Street, Sungurama Chetty Street, Kondichetty
Street and Baker Street in the vicinity of the High Court,
systematically barged into such of the lawyers chambers which
were openand caused damage and beat up some of the lawyers
within. Even lady lawyers were not spared.
There is no doubt that the violence was started by the
unruly mob of lawyers, some of whom were even dressed in robes
and bands, but once the police got into action, there was no
stopping them. It was as if the police force, as a body, went
berserk. The lathi charge continued irrespective of whether a
lawyer was a miscreant or otherwise. The overzealousness of the
police resulted in their beating up a Despatch Peon, some other
court staff, a canteen boy and even assaulting on the head an
Hon’ble Judge of the High Court namely, Justice. Arumuga
Perumal Adithyan The videos show that Justice Arumuga Perumal
Adithyan, who was somewhat unduly brave in going to the
forefront of the rioting mob of lawyers clashing with the police, tried
to appeal to both sides to maintain calm and behave with the
dignity befitting the Chartered High Court. Neither side seems to
have paid heed to him. In the melee, while ‘ lathis were being
swung at the lawyers, one lathi blow from behind landed on the
head of the Hon’ble Judge. The video shows something
interesting. While being carried to the ambulance, the Hon’ble
Judge is heard, appealing not to the police, but to the lawyers, and
saying: “don’t throw stones at the police, they are our protectors”.
On the 19th February 2009, when the incident became
serious, some of the lawyers rushed to the Chamber of the
Learned Acting Chief Justice to apprise him.of the developments.
The Learned Acting Chief Justice and other Judges and the
Registry attempted to contact the Director General of Police and
the Commissioner of Police, but they were unable to contact them
for a long time. Finally, when the Commissioner of Police was
contacted, he assured that he would come to the. spot and ensu. re
withdrawal of the police. The Acting Chief Justice was emphatic
that all police personnel should be withdrawn from the High Court
premises and they were withdrawn, although some of the lawyers
continued to hold dharna inside even after 19th February 2009.”
AND the police is given clean chit.
Thanks for posting the report. Shame on the police and the barbarians who support their actions! :-x
…if the lawyers are hooligans, mylord srikrishna, who are you (the judges) then?
plz click the link below:
http://www.judgesplot4plot.com/
any chance of recommending guidelines for yourselves?
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
The TN police is another organization that needs clean up – no doubt. But the lawyer community deserved this rap on their knuckles. I am sure better sense will prevail going forward.
DMK is again successful and organisations who believe they are fighting for a right cause should learn from organisations like DMK in execution. Of course, lawyers are not above law.
A Lament for democracy
A letter from a lawyer…
February 19th was the start of the worst crisis this Bar has seen so far.
It has also been the start of a phase of never-before-seen unity amongst
the Bar. Let us face it, it also has shocked us to see the lack of public and media support we have……………………………………………………….
Yet, the cause we are fighting for is one of the fundamentals that keep a
democracy vibrant. For those amongst the public who talk of degradation of
values and “advocates hooliganism”, we ask the Citizenry – and do not
think ‘Citizenry’ comprises of just the well connected amongst you, who
can pick up your phones and call a bureaucrat or a political player to
help you when you are in trouble, but the real ‘Citizenry’, the common man
who has no bureaucratic or political god-fathers – we ask you to sit back
and think if any of you have ever been able to walk into a police station
and come out with your dignity intact; we ask you to think of those times
you felt helpless when the government of the day wanted to take your
Marina beach and make it into a government building; we ask you to think
of those times when your kids or maidservants families have been picked up
for “questioning” and detained without an arrest for days together; we ask
you to think of house demolition notices with 24 hours notice; cricket
matches being held under huge wasteful wattage when your kids do not have
the electricity to study for her exams; all your hard saved money
invested in a small one-ground property somewhere which takes the fancy of
the local politician who sends his men to squat on your property; of women
visiting their husbands in jail being raped by the custodians – we ask you
to think of those of us who have worn the black robes to keep asking the
government questions, to challenge them into positive action, to ensure
that power never becomes absolute because while power itself corrupts, god
save us from a situation where absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is not an appeal for your sympathy for the cause we are fighting for
– we can’t blame you for thinking it is “the lawyers cause’ – yes, it is
difficult to think independently when leading Chennai newspapers actively
and aggressively followed a “blame the lawyers” strategy. But you must
know that 6 judges of the Madras High Court were assaulted, clients who
had come to the High Court campus were beaten up, un-involved and innocent lawyers sitting inside their offices 500 metres away were beaten up, the judicial chambers were treated with contempt, the Acting Chief Justice’s
calls to the Commissioner of Police were not responded to, women lawyers
sitting inside the court halls on the second floor of the city courts were
beaten up, lawyers who went to protect the judges were beaten up – now
tell me, do you want the judges who decide your matters against the
government to decide with the fear of punishment by the government? Do you want judges to start fearing the government? And do you want lawyers to meekly submit to all the Affidavits filed by the government in your cases?
This is the Issue.
Even the Srikrishna committee report that enquired into the incident categorically finds that the Police action was excessive,
disproportionate, targeted at the entire community and not just the
miscreants. The Report says that the Police action is “utterly
despicable and needs to be roundly condemned”. The Report says “it was as
if the police force, as a body went beserk… The Police did not spare the
children’s crèche also from the hail of stones. Luckily however no child
was injured though it did traumatize some of the children in the crèche
and the ayah’s attending to them”. For some reason however, the media and
public opinion choose to read selectively the Report as though the lawyer
community is at blame.
Believe me, for those of us used to cracking those ‘lawyer jokes’ let us
think again before laughing at them. Because on 19th Feb I took a long
look at my profession and felt a deep sense of pride. I belonged to a noble cause.
Yes, there have been black sheep – pray, tell me where there have not
been? Engineers who use substandard material to build bridges that
collapse, doctors involved in sex rackets and organ-stealing, teachers
involved in child abuse, bureaucrats who push the files that help people
siphon off constituency funds, policemen who gangrape and collect hafta,
bankers who give away public money to the undeserving business and never
collect it back, chartered accountants who cause investors to lose money
on a Satyam scam, stock brokers who can ruin families with their scams,
NGO’s who use the pretence of public work to route in foreign money with
an agenda; politicians who whip up mass hysteria for votes – tell me,
where do you not have black sheep and degradation? And yes, we do need to
clean up our act and set our own house in order, just like most
professions do.
Can we therefore condemn the entire class of those professions and beat them up? Now, that has been what has happened – “let us teach these lawyers and judges and the entire legal system a lesson” – with this
agenda some men in uniform, and ordered by some politician, targeted an
entire community. And like the Germans watched on while the Holocaust
happened – are you sitting back and watching?
Remember, somebody had said – “when they came to get someone down the
street, I just watched; when they came to get my neighbour, I just
watched; then they came to get me….”
Remember Emergency has happened – in this very county – not too long ago.
Remember democracy requires you to protect your judicial institutions –
because that is the check and balance that ensures that absolute power
does not corrupt absolutely.
JaiHind!
For any country to remain free and democratic, and to be fair to all citizens needs the legislative, the executive and the judiciary functioning well. Without any one of these pillars, the country ceases to be a democratic country and tends to either become a monarchy or plain anarchy.
So I do not have an issue with the lawyer community as such or doubt their pre-eminence in ensuring India remaining a democratic nation which in essence is its core strength.
The issue however was because the lawyers tended to think they were a law unto themselves. They have taken it a little further by resorting to activities on the streets that necessitated the use of force by the police to bring order and control.
The law community in Madras has always been one like an unleashed manger. No one – either the political class or the police – had the courage to leash them. This was so evident that even lawyers-to-be developed the tendency to take law into their hands at the drop of a hat. They were untouched by the police even when they misbehaved with girls and women on the buses, or at the Marina which is also the home to one of the premier women’s college in Madras. Complaints against these students usually fell on deaf ears – and the reason was because the law college students (and by extension the lawyer community) always tended to support their brethren at all times.
Lawyers in general have also not been very sympathetic to the common man – something Kesavan have mentioned in your reply to my post. It is well known that the well connected, and the rich, have a better chance of getting legal suits and cases argued in their favour. For the common man, who is struggling to claim ownership of a piece of land that he rightfully owns, it may take many years, and often even a lifetime, to get the case to any sort of conclusion. We have seen how notorious the courts have been in adjourning cases for one reason or the other and at times for no reason at all. It has become so bad now that going to court and trying to file a case to get one’s right asserted seems to be last option. People either prefer to give into hooligans or try to strike some kind of a compromise.
All of the above has led to the pent up feelings among the general public that somehow the “lawyers really deserve this.” At last, they see these people at the receiving end. There seems to be some force (whether or not politically motivated) that seems to be willing to put an end to the atrocities of the lawyer community. The video clippings that showed lawyers in black robes throwing stones and shouting like ruffians and rowdies on the streets of Madras has not helped in garnering any support towards them.
It is time this community starts looking inwards and assess what went wrong. why is the general public apathetic towards them? How come despite the openly and blatantly violent action by the police the people seem to take this silently and actually support the action? Is it because the media and public have been projecting the lawyers only as the criminals? Or is it because all those reports are only vindicating the long held belief of the general public that the lawyers actually invited such action on themselves due to their poor conduct? Where do you think the disconnect occurred?
The recent violence inside the law college in full public view, with the police watching by helplessly, and the more recent rowdy behaviour exhibited by the lawyers on the streets and not to mention their contempt for decorum inside court premises when they abused and assaulted Su. Swamy (for whatever reasons they may feel is justified) was only the last straw that had turned the opinion of the general public completely against them. It is going to take a lot of time and some serious soul searching for the lawyers to win back any credibility that they may have had in the past.
Again, I am not condoning the police brutality. But my contention is that, the lawyers need to have a serious rethink on their attitudes and actions.
The days are not far away…
The days are not far away for what happened to Madras HC to happen to all the courts and even SC.
See the link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-260962357268675922&hl=en
PRESS RELEASE
(obviously not going to be published by any media)
The State Level Joint Action Committee of bar associations, on behalf of the lawyers of Tamil Nadu, does not accept the interim report of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission. The report is riddled with factual contradictions and inconsistencies.
The incidents in the State over the Srilankan Tamils issue and the caste dimensions of the Chidambaram Temple take over, seem to have clouded the Commission’s approach leading to his condoning the gross constitutional transgression committed by the State Police into the independence of the judiciary. No reason is offered by the Commission for not recommending any action against the police, who even according to the Commission went beserk using excessive force, raining lathi blows, targeting heads of judges, staff, lawyers and litigants and wantonly breaking court property. Even the police assault on a Hon’ble judge of the High Court is dismissed as having been invited by an “unduly brave” judge!
The Commission’s remark that the entry of the armed police into the Court’s premises without the permission of the Chief Justice was merely ‘irregular’, instead of severely castigating such intrusion, makes one recall sadly the now infamous ‘habeas corpus’ judgment when the Supreme Court felt overwhelmed by the declaration of emergency to suspend the ‘right to life’ itself. No ‘provocation’ can provide justification for the police to enter and run riot into courts and the Report if accepted portends dangerous consequences similar to that witnessed in our neighbouring nation when courts were dictated to by a military ruler. The experiences in such countries show that even the gravest of situations cannot warrant an assault on Courts and Judges, independence of the judiciary is a basic feature of our Constitution and the legal community will not allow this to be compromised at any cost.
By the same logic, the observations of the Commission that the Madras High Court has adopted a “Soft Policy” towards the Advocates is most unwarranted, when the High Court has taken all steps in accordance with law in taking action on specific complaints received against any Advocate. The commission consisting of a retired judge of a Supreme Court exceeded its limits in criticizing the
functioning of the High Court, a Constitutional authority, which is in poor taste.
The Commission’s justification of the presence of armed policemen in the Court campus and the use of force based on the order of the High Court dated 2/02/2007 in W.P.No.3197 of 2002, makes a mockery of the High Court’s order which actually directed police to ensure protection of the heritage building and its precincts by permanent security presence and not its desecration. The ghastliness of the police action is heightened by the fact that no public announcement was made that there was an unlawful assembly of lawyers and that they should disperse. The carnage in the High Court was similar to “Jalianwalabagh” and the Commission does not even advert to the absence of the mandatory “warning” by the police.
The report relies entirely on the police version and video recordings on the specious reasoning that it had recording of the time while the evidence provided by the lawyers had no time line. No reference is made to statements given by judges, staff, litigants and lawyers, which admittedly the Commission had gathered. We understand that the video provided by the police was doctored.
While TV channels all over the State showed Justice Arumuga Perumal Adityan pleading with the police not to assault the lawyers, the Commission refers only to the police version.
The Commission says that the “official” video did not show the presence of the Commissioner of Police till about 05.14 p.m on 19/02/2009 and that there was lathi charge only at 5.46 pm. The Police has suppressed from the Commission F.I.R No.15/2009 registered on 19.02.2009 at the B-4 Police Station, High Court premises at about 7.20 p.m. on information provided by C.Jayakodi, Inspector of Police (Crime) Esplanade Police Station, which says that the police started the lathi charge at 3.30 p.m. on orders from the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Flower Bazaar. According to the FIR, the Commissioner of Police K. Radhakrishnan was in the High Court at 4.30 p.m. There is evidence to show the Commissioner of Police was present at the time Mr. Justice Arumugha Perumal Adityan was assaulted, which according to the police themselves is around 4.30 p.m. The Commission thus committed a grave error in exonerating the Commissioner of Police on the mistaken view that he was present only after 5.15pm.
The observation of the Commission that the ‘mob of lawyers’ set fire to the Police station is clearly questionable, since the crowd at that time is clearly seen consisting of policemen in black and white uniform and coloured clothes and most lawyers had already taken shelter inside court-halls, having suffered severe lathi blows. The Commission makes no reference to the fact that there was no announcement by the police that there was an “unlawful assembly” of lawyers and that they should disperse.
The Report reads as if the Lathicharge commenced only after the fire accident at the police station, but the whole world saw ‘live’ on TV channels that the lathicharge commenced at 3.30 p.m. and that the fire accident happened only after nearly two hours of lathicharge.
The language used by Mr. B.N. Srikrishna to describe lawyers – “miscreants” “hooligans” ”minatory mob” “fat lawyer” does no justice to the gravity of the incidents and the seriousness of the enquiry. The lawyers confronted by a large posse of stone throwing armed police could hardly be expected not to retaliate in self defence.
If the Commission had even noticed the video recording played to him by the lawyers, the “fat lawyer”, could be seen peacefully pleading with the police not to throw stones, pleading with his colleagues not to retaliate, waving his white shirt as a peace flag and ultimately approaching the police and arguing with them as only a true Gandhian could, he would not have remarked about his size alone but would have been impressed by the weight of his courage.
Given the short time at his disposal, the Commission could not have come to any conclusive determination of the veracity of the evidence provided by the police which were not even provided to the lawyers. When the Commission did not intend to continue its enquiry, it should have refrained from making defamatory statements against lawyers gathered solely from the police video.
Unfortunately, the State Government has evaded answering the question posed by the Supreme Court of India and the High Court “Who authorized the entry of armed policemen and who authorized the lathi charge”. The reluctance of the State government in answering this question before the High Court or the Supreme Court and before the Commission is a clear pointer to the complicity of the State and the fact that the assault on the judicial institution was a preplanned and predetermined one.
The T.N. lawyers will continue to struggle to restore Rule of law and to oppose the Police raj in the State.
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle , 11th, March 2009:-
IPS officer’s team beats up a passengerMarch 9th, 2009
By Our Correspondent March 8: An IPS officer from the 2006 batch landed himself in soup after he and his subordinates thrashed an engineer at the Nagercoil railway station on Friday morning.
His seniors have taken up the matter and have asked him for an explanation about the incident, according to sources.
The police team was ‘teaching’ a lesson to the engineer who had the “courage” to argue with the wife of the young IPS official over berth allotment in the train they had travelled on the previous night.
The engineer, working in the Koodankulam power project, had boarded the Kanyakumari Express with his wife, kids and parents, on Thursday evening at Egmore.
The wife of the IPS officer, who was in the same compartment, was not ready to wait till night to use her lower berth.
“She wanted to sleep by 6 pm on Thursday which was objected to by the engineer who told her that she could use the berth for sleeping only after 9 pm and till then the berth would be used by other passengers for sitting,” official sources added.
When the train reached Nagercoil the next morning, a gang of 15 policemen in uniform under the leadership of the IPS official was waiting for him.
They thrashed the engineer in the station and then dragged him away to a police station while the wife of the IPS officer went home in a police vehicle.