Anti-Dinakaran lawyers lock up two judges

Bangalore lawyers,who had called a day-long boycott of the courts in protest against Karnataka Chief Justice P D Dinakaran,today locked...

Bangalore lawyers,who had called a day-long boycott of the courts in protest against Karnataka Chief Justice P D Dinakaran,today locked up two senior judges of the High Court in a court hall for over an hour.

The protest by the Bangalore Advocates Association disrupted functioning in courts across the city. In the High Court, papers,pens were thrown at judges in one of the court halls and there was slogan-shouting in the court hall of Justice Dinakaran who is facing allegations of impropriety and land encroachment in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. A decision on his elevation to the Supreme Court is pending.

In Court Hall No. 1 of the High Court,Justice Dinakaran had begun hearing cases as part of a division bench when over 200 advocates barged into the room and demanded that all lawyers leave the hall. At this,Justice Dinakaran pleaded with lawyers to let him perform his constitutional duties but was shouted down. As lawyers forced the court to adjourn proceedings,some members of the media,who were suspected of filming the protest,were attacked by the advocates.

In most court halls,judges quietly agreed to the demand of the advocates but in Court Hall No. 2,the second-in-command after the Chief Justice,Justice V Gopal Gowda,and Justice B V Nagarathna,who was part of a special bench that stayed the advocates association resolution,refused to give in when the lawyers barged in.

This led to nearly an hour of slogan-shouting,hurling of pens and paper,banging of bookcases in the courtroom and lifting of chairs. But Justice Gopal Gowda refused to budge from his seat. The advocates then came out of the court hall and locked all four doors of the room and used benches as barricades.

Justices Gopal Gowda and Nagarathna were not allowed to leave the court hall from around 1 pm,through the scheduled lunch break at 1.30 pm,until 2.15 pm when Justice Dinakaran himself came outside the court hall with other judges and the police and requested the advocates to let the two judges go. They were eventually escorted to their chambers.

Once the advocates dispersed,the police top brass,including Commissioner Shankar Bidari,arrived at the High Court to provide security to judges for sittings in the afternoon.

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Expressing anguish over the behaviour of the advocates,Justice Gopal Gowda said he felt that his life and that of his sister judge was under threat.

The advocates association has so far passed three resolutions in the case of Justice Dinakaran since September the first asking him to abstain from attending court; the second asking the Supreme Court to decide quickly on allegations against him; and,finally the November 4 resolution to abstain from court work for a day.