The relationship between lawyers in Chennai courts and police has reached a flashpoint following two incidents which happened in the Capital city last week.
A group of lawyers ransacked the MKB Nagar police station late on Saturday night, which resulted in a scuffle between them and the policemen on duty. Four policemen and two lawyers were injured in the altercation. lawyers in various city courts are on strike since Monday, demanding action against the policemen whom they allege assaulted their colleagues.
Another verbal altercation between a group of lawyers holidaying at Kanyakumari, and a resort owner has led to the Bar Council of India and Supreme Court Bar Association dragging the name of Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu K Ramanujam into a controversy. Senior police officials in Tamil Nadu expressed shock over the statements issued by BCI chairman MK Mishra and SCBA president MN Krishnamani criticising Ramanujam for his refusal to meet a group of lawyers who went to the latter’s office to submit a memorandum.
The lawyers of Madras High Court on Friday last complained to the acting Chief Justice that the DGP misbehaved with them. But police officials and a section of the lawyers expressed surprise and described the complaint as a bunch of lies.
It all began on the second week of May, when a group of lawyers from Karur went for a sightseeing trip to Kanyakumari. They stayed in a private resort owned by one S Raju and had a verbal altercation with him over a small issue. The wordy exchanges resulted in the guests ransacking the resort. “Two CCTV cameras, a TV set and furniture in the resort were destroyed by the guests who were led by a lawyer by name Marappan. I filed a police case, the same day, in Anju Gramam police station, since I suffered a lot of financial losses,” Raju told The Pioneer. He said he has recorded the entire incident through CCTV cameras.
The lawyers led by Marappan, who is the president of the Bar Council of Karur also filed a case against Raju in the same police station when they were told that Raju has filed a case against them.
last week saw, nearly 70 lawyers of the Madras High Court went to the DGP’s office to submit a representation against Anju Gramam police for filing the case against their counterparts in Karur. S Prabhakaran, president of Tamil Nadu Advocates association complained to the acting Chief Justice RK Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan that the DGP refused to meet them and even shouted at them.
But officials in the DGP’s office who did not want their name to be quoted told The Pioneer that since there were about 70 lawyers, they were told that a delegation of five persons could meet the DGP. But what happened was that more than 20 lawyers from the group gate crashed into the first floor of the DGP’s building. “The DGP who heard the shouting came out of his cabin and told the lawyers that there was no need for a large crowd to come and represent the grievance. The usual practice is that we collect the memorandum/representation and depending on the urgency of the matter direct the petitioner to the available senior official. This has been the practice which has been in vogue for years,” said the official.
But the action of the lawyers has proved that they have become a law unto themselves. “I was shocked to hear about the news. Will the court authorities allow some 20 or 25 policeman to gate crash into the chamber of the Chief Justice or any other judges to hand over a complaintIJ” asked Radha Rajan, a political
commentator, who herself has been assaulted by a group of lawyers in 2009 in the Madras High Court premises.
Ramanujam, described as an officer and a gentleman, was not available for comments. But the officer is known for his uncompromising principles, integrity and no-nonsense approach to all issues.
Mishra alleged that Ramanujam insulted the lawyers and asked the acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court to put an end to such “atrocities” against the lawyers. Krishnamani said whoever may be the person and whatever may be the situation, it was the duty of the DGP to receive representation. “The arbitrary manner in which the DGP treated the Bar leaders is unfortunate and is not expected from an officer of his rank,” Krishnamani told reporters.
But both of them are either silent or ignorant about the Kanyakumari incident which led to the police registering the case against the lawyers from Karur. The resort owner Raju said, the altercations led to the destruction of electronic gadgets worth `2 lakh.
The behaviour of some of the lawyers of the Madras High Court has come under the scanner many times. The Justice Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry which probed the 2009 riots unleashed by the Madras High Court lawyers in the court premises had criticised the lawyers in the harshest of words. On February 17, 2009, Subramanian Swamy, president of Janata Party, was beaten up by a group of slogan shouting lawyers inside the court room while the court was in session. The lawyers were on a month-long agitation against the silence of India over the attacks on Tamils in Sri lanka by the Rajapaksa Government.
