Bar On Legal Aid

Observing a tendency among Bar associations to pass resolutions asking lawyers not to accept cases such as those pertaining to terror attacks

Observing a tendency among Bar associations to pass resolutions asking lawyers not to accept cases such as those pertaining to terror attacks,the Supreme Court has declared that all such resolutions are unconstitutional. Quashing the counter-criminal cases filed by policemen and lawyers of Coimbatore in 2007,the court said it was the duty of a lawyer to defend an accused. The lawyers and cops involved had lodged cases against each other; the Coimbatore Bar Association had passed a resolution that none of its members would defend the accused policemen. A look at such resolutions passed by other Bar associations.

MADHYA PRADESH

District Bar Association in Dhar passed a resolution in April 2008,banning its 300 members from representing 13 SIMI activists. The members beat up an elderly lawyer from Ujjain who represented the SIMI activists.

In September 2008,the Bhopal Bar Association resolved not to represent terrorists and Naxals. The resolution was passed by young advocates while the seniors had kept away. Its true that everyone has a right to legal remedy but terrorists dont believe in the Constitution, advocate Devendra Yadav,who is a member of the Bajrang Dal,had said.

UTTAR PRADESH

Waliullah,an accused in the Varanasi blasts,was roughed up by lawyers when he was produced in court on May 3,2006. The Varanasi Bar Association decided that no lawyer would appear for the accused. The Allahabad High Court transferred the case to Ghaziabad.

The trial of the five arrested in connection with the attack on the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site was shifted from Faizabad to Allahabad on the orders of the Allahabad High Court after protests from lawyers in 2007.

In 2008,after serial blasts in the courts of Lucknow,Faizabad and Varanasi,lawyers contesting the case of arrested accused had to face threats and intimidation from mobs of lawyers in all three courts. A resolution was passed by the Faizabad Bar Association that no lawyer would take up the case. Advocate Mohammad Shoaib,contesting the cases of all five accused,was attacked in Barabanki,and lawyers asked him to withdraw. But he started appearing again when the families of the accused told him that no one else was ready to take up their case.

On November 18,2007,three Pakistani nationals,allegedly belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed,were assaulted when produced in Lucknows civil court after their arrest on charges of hatching a conspiracy to kidnap Rahul Gandhi. Their trial has been going on inside the jail.

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Lawyers refused to take up the case of two Pakistani nationals arrested for an attack on the Rampur CRPF camp on December 31,2007; the court had to appoint an amicus curaie.

JAMMU amp; KASHMIR

In 2006,after a resolution by Srinagar Bar Association not to take up the cases of accused in a sex scam,the Supreme Court transferred the trial to a Chandigarh court.

JHARKHAND

On June 8,1998,Ranchi District Bar Association Secretary S S Ojha lodged an FIR alleging that a group of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha activists had vandalised his office,beaten up his colleagues,and set afire a vehicle on the court premises. The Bar Association passed a resolution asking lawyers not to represent their case. Arvind Lal took up the case; the association cancelled his membership.

ORISSA

Three months ago,the Bhubaneswar Bar Association passed an informal resolution asking members not to appear for a person who had a scuffle with a lawyer at a police station. For the next week or so,no lawyer came forward; the accused had to apologise to get legal assistance.

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In 2000,the Cuttack Bar Association passed a resolution asking its members not to appear for postgraduate students of SCB Medical College and Hospital after a brawl between lawyers and doctors. An advocates father had died while being treated and the lawyers manhandled doctors on duty.

RAJASTHAN

The Rajasthan Bar Association on August 27,2008,passed a diktat that no advocate would defend the accused in the 2008 Jaipur blasts. However,after protests from civil liberty activists,all the accused were represented in court.

MAHARASHTRA

A Rehman was stopped from taking up a case in 1976,and then again in 2010. Three months ago,he faced opposition in the Pune Bar Association after he decided to take the case of German Bakery blast accused Mirza Himayat Baig. In 1976,when four students were booked in the Joshi-Abhayankar serial murder,the Bar had passed a similar resolution.

Lawyers in Mumbai had considered a resolution after 26/11. Everyone decided to avoid Amal Kasabs case,but no resolution was passed, said a member of the Sessions Court

Bar Association

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A similar situation followed when lawyer Shahid Azmi was gunned down this year. Azmi represented Fahim Ansari,accused in the 26/11 case.

ASSAM

A meeting of the Gauhati High Court Bar Association and Lawyers Association,Guwahati LAG passed a resolution in November 2008 that no advocate should take up the cases of those who trigerred an explosion on the LAG campus that October. The culprits later turned out to be the NDFB.