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Lawyers' strike hits courts in Bhopal, Jabalpur

Our correspondent in Bhopal

The two-week lawyers' agitation, over the setting up of a bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court at Bhopal, has paralysed functioning of courts in Bhopal and Jabalpur.

The lawyers of Bhopal and Jabalpur, which houses the high court, are at loggerheads. Jabalpur is against the opening of a bench in Bhopal, while Bhopal has declared their agitation a "decisive war".

The striking lawyers have also evicted stamp vendors from the court premises.

However, the worst hit is the general public.

Fifty-four-year-old Jamila Be of Bhopal has been making the rounds of the Bhopal district court for 15 days to get her 19-year-old son out on bail. Jamila said she has spent all her money in hiring a lawyer. Now, the lawyer has refused to come to the court till the strike ends.

Forty-three-year-old Kapil Sharma has been coming to court everyday, in anticipation that the strike will end.

Chaubey said his retail shop had been 'encroached" upon despite a court stay. Due to the strike, he cannot do anything but watch his property being ransacked.

Sixty-year-old Hameed Khan said that even typing work was not being carried out at the court, for which he had been coming for 20 days.

It all started with a demand to open a high court bench at Bhopal. Lawyers there claimed Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had given them an assurance on the issue.

Devendra Sharma, secretary of the Bhopal District Bar Association, said he had assured them that he would forward a recommendation to the high court chief justice to open a bench.

Singh too told reporters that he had no objection to the bench. But, his statement left the Jabalpur lawyers all the more agitated. They gheraoed him in Jabalpur last week, forcing him to officially deny his statement.

Umakant Sharma, president of the High Court Bar Association said that Singh's 'support' to Bhopal's lawyers was politically motivated.

Earlier the lawyers of Jabalpur had given in to the opening of high court benches at Indore and Gawlior, Umakant said, adding that this time they would not allow a division at any cost. Umakant said that the Union law minister had agreed not to bifurcate the high court.

A senior lawyer of Jabalpur high court, Rajendra Tiwari said that any further bifurcation would weaken the judiciary.

Differences between senior and junior lawyers have also come to the fore. The juniors claimed that seniors had weakened the agitation. They said they would prohibit media coverage of any function organised by senior lawyers.

The seniors have been criticising their juniors for turning the agitation violent. The junior lawyers had allegedly damaged over half a dozen government vehicles and attacked passers-by outside the high court.

Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Bhawani Singh has assured the lawyers of Jabalpur that the high court would not be further divided. However, despite that, the lawyers decided to continue their strike till their demand to shift principal benches of all tribunals to Jabalpur was met. The junior lawyers of Jabalpur are also firm on a concrete assurance from the state government on the issue.

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