The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Tuesday appealed to advocates here not to indulge in any indecent activities like on Monday when the office of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi was attacked allegedly by a section of lawyers. The apex body of lawyers said that instead of resorting to unlawful acts to register their protest, the legal fraternity should exercise reasonable restraint and desist from indulging in any unruly activity. The BCI appeal came in wake of Monday’s incident of protest against Bedi’s candidature as Chief Minister in which some people were injured in a clash between advocates and her supporters in Krishna Nagar area of East Delhi.
“We are intellectuals and law-abiding citizens. We ensure the implementation of laws in country and, therefore, society expects from us a lawful and normal behaviour all the time. Even if we are to raise some protest on some issue, we should lodge our protest with all the reasonable restraints so that society may not get any opportunity to raise its finger against the lawyer community,” BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said in a statement.
Observing that in Indian democracy, there were many ways to raise voice against anybody or on any issue, he said, “I only request my lawyer colleagues to desist from indulging in any unruly activity.” According to police, the clash was between a group of BJP workers and lawyers who were raising slogans against Kiran Bedi outside her campaign office.