For a few hours on Thursday, the Rohini District courts turned into a fortress, with hundreds of policemen holding the crowd at bay and scores others in riot gear, carrying tear gas guns.

A day after some advocates allegedly beat up Additional District Judge Pankaj Gupta, the court rejected the bail of two of them — Vikas Gupta and Rekha Sharma — and remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

The advocates wanted them bailed out, even though the odds were against them. Calling it a case of Bar versus the Bench, over a hundred lawyers crammed into the lobby leading to the courtroom, waiting anxiously for the decision.

The Bar Council of Delhi, though, has strongly condemned the incident and constituted a fact finding committee which will submit its report within seven days.

In the FIR (of which Newsline has a copy) registered with the Prashant Vihar Police station, ADJ Gupta alleged that at 10.10 am on Wednesday, he began the hearing for the matrimonial case of Niveditta Malik vs Dinkar Dixit.

When a constable came to give a statement, advocate Jai Prakash Prasad intervened and began shouting at him.

Gupta told him to keep quiet, and after the constable’s statement was recorded, Prasad was asked to make submissions. But instead, Prasad, alongwith other advocates — one of whom Gupta identified as the Joint Secretary of Rohini court — kept shouting at Gupta.

Ten minutes later, around 20 advocates entered the courtroom and started hurling abuses at him. At 11.20 am, around 60 advocates pushed their way into the courtroom and started approaching the dais. After getting the orderlies out of the way, Gupta alleged that the advocates slapped him. Two others, one of whom was Munish Chand, caught him and banged his head against the wall. Prasad picked up a stool and threw it at him, but Gupta said he managed to duck. At last, Advocate Rekha Sharma told him that he could go to his chamber, Gupta said.

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