On 24 April, a scuffle broke out between advocates of Howrah Court and the employees of Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) over a silly matter.
As a result, advocates of Howrah Court were alleged to have been mercilessly beaten up by the police after entering the court compound. The police not only beat the women and aged lawyers, they also fired tear gas shells, picked up some protesting lawyers including women without having any lady officers present, and misbehaved with them in the police station.
Above all, a lady police officer of DIG Rank called the lawyers “intellectual culprits”. The matter did not end there. Tear gas shells were also fired within the chamber of Additional District judge.
As a result, the Bar Council of West Bengal decided not to work all over the state till the accused police officers in this attack are booked.
Due to this situation, not only the litigants have been suffering but the state is also losing heavy revenue day after day. It can rightly be said that such an incident of police atrocity upon lawyers after entering the court premises has never happened in India even during the British regime.
When the entire nation was celebrating the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, police brutality and excess took place in a district court within the state of West Bengal. The dispute cropped up over illegal parking of a bicycle by a lawyer of Howrah Court within the compound of Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) which is just opposite the court premises.
The dispute is not a new one. Lawyers, clerks and clients have to face problems regularly to park their bikes and cars in and around the court premises due to shortage of space.
In fact, most of the lower courts of the state have virtually no infrastructure to run the judiciary. Unavailability of potable drinking water, shortage of chairs in the bar library, dirty toilets, clumsy lock-ups, garbage scattered around the compound, suffocated court rooms, shortage of peons and bench clerks in the court rooms and parking problems are some of the major problems which are still unaddressed by the government.
Over the said illegal parking, a hot altercation erupted between the employees of HMC and the lawyers which resulted in manhandling with each other. It is alleged that the employees of HMC pelted stones and bricks upon the lawyers which made them furious.
Primarily, police did not try to intervene in the matter; as such the area in front of the court and HMC office turned into a battlefield. Local MLA of ruling party visited the place and tried to mediate the issue on behalf of the HMC employees.
But, “go back” slogans by the lawyers forced him to leave the place. Interestingly, Howrah Police Commissionerate was at a stone’s throw from the Howrah Court but police did not step up at the right time to handle the matter following due process of law.
After the departure of the MLA, a big organized police force headed by the top police personnel surrounded the court premises and arbitrarily lathi-charged the agitated lawyers, clerks and litigants, including women and aged persons rather than identifying the lawyers and HMC employees who had been involved in the scuffle and booking them according to law.
It later emerged that police had lodged a fake FIR against some lawyers without mentioning their names, probably under the pressure from upper level. The basic question is under whose orders the police entered the court compound and lathi-charged lawyers including aged persons and women? This barbaric act of the police is a direct attack upon the judiciary.
Independence of judiciary has been threatened. Human rights of the Lawyers have been violated. The conflict between the judiciary and executive reached a stage that compelled lawyers to continue their cease work agitation till the accused police officers were arrested.
Surprisingly, no statement was issued by the law minister of the state or the Government till date. Now the question is whether indefinite cease-work will resolve this problem. Lawyers say that if the accused police officers get away scot free, the moral force of the legal community will be broken.
Hon’ble Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court has already taken up the matter suo-motu. Apart from this, the State Govt. should intervene in the matter to solve the crisis. Departmental proceedings against the accused police officers should be initiated immediately.
On the other hand, a Judicial enquiry commission should be announced by a sitting High Court Judge. Several measures need to be adopted for the safety of women lawyers in the court premises. If these basic steps are not taken immediately, it may lead to a serious catastrophe.
(The writer is an advocate at Alipore Court, Kolkata and a Human Rights Activist.)