On Wednesday, the full Bench of the Madras High Court directed the state Government to suspend Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai city, A K Viswanathan, and former joint commissioner (North) Ramasubramaniam for ordering the lathicharge on February 19, leading to a bloody clash between police personnel and advocates inside the court premises.

Hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by senior lawyers and office bearers of various advocates’ associations, the Bench, comprising Justice S J Mukhopadhaya, Justice K Chandru and Justice V Dhanapalan, held that there was prima facie reason to initiate action against these officials.

The officials, directed the Bench, should be placed under suspension, “as they were the persons who were at the helm of affairs (during the incident on February 19), under whose direct supervision of the entire operation was conducted,” said the Bench, even as it pointed out that it was unbecoming of a member of the Bar to organise such protests. Lawyers had no right to strike and should immediately withdraw their strike, said the Bench, adding that the interest of litigants should be protected.

Despite the comments by the Bench, the Joint Action Committee decided to go forward with the scheduled ‘rally for justice’ on Thursday. “The committee will hold a meeting after the rally to discuss the latest developments and will reach a decision about carrying forward the indefinite boycott,” said Madras High Court Advocates Association president R C Paul Kanagaraj.

Barring Government lawyers and those belonging to the legal wing of the ruling alliance, lawyers in Tamil Nadu have been boycotting court proceedings indefinitely, demanding strong actions against the police officials who had ordered deployment of armed police personnel inside the court premises and ordered them to charge at the protestors despite directions from the acting Chief Justice.

... contd.