An ongoing stir by the Jagatsinghpur lawyers reached the 15th day on Wednesday with the agitators staging a dharna in front of the district Collector’s office here and reiterating their three anti-police demands. The Collector reached at the dharna site, held talks with the lawyers and assured them to resolve the crisis before February 23.
The litigant’s sufferings have coupled following several courts went non functional due to the lawyers’ strike in the last two weeks while public resentments was brewing. Meanwhile, a few social activists have threatened that if the matter remained unresolved before February 23 they would approach the High Court seeking intervention and protecting public liberty and rights.
Speaking at the dharna site, Jagatsinghpur Bar Association president Dola Govinda Dash justified the strike following a tussle between judiciary and police. The police registered a false and fabricated case against Chief Judicial Magistrate [CJM] Satyapriya Mishra on a complaint of a woman police from Paradip without verifying the fact and nature of the allegation, he alleged. As a result, the dignity of judiciary is a stake which triggered protest from the lawyers. However, many lawyers have disapproved of the ongoing stir as well.