Protesting against an alleged assault on a lawyer, the Bangalore lawyers freezed the city Tuesday and repeatedly on Thursday. Lawyers went to the streets in protest against alleged attack on their colleague Balakrishna Babu by a police constable; for not carrying driving licence while riding a two wheeler on January 14, 2012. Police officials says that the lawyer was not beaten up but was stopped for driving without licence and for pillion riding two other people violating traffic rules.

The seven hour protest by around 1000 lawyers on Tuesday brought Bangalore to a standstill and the whole city was jammed. The protest had led to huge dilemma for the people as many missed flights and many could not attend important functions. The police remained tied handed allegedly due to the orders of Karnataka Home Minister R Ashoka, reports TOI.

Further on Thursday, the lawyers decided to boycott courts in protest again. The functioning of courts had been paralysed as majority of lawyers abstained from work. Though judges were present, most of the lawyers kept away from the courts affecting the work in response to a call by the Advocates Association of Bangalore (AAB). Amidst tight security, around 2,000 advocates led by AAB President K N Subba Reddy took out a march to the Raj Bhavan where a delegation submitted a memorandum to Governor HR Bhardwaj demanding stringent action against the constable, reports ZEE News.

Hundreds of advocates took out a ‘peace march’ on Thursday. En route to Raj Bhawan some of them chucked packets of urine at cops and were at their abusive best in attacking police and media, reports DNA.

Vishnu S, a lawyer based in Bangalore, speaking to Bar & Bench said, “This is highly ridiculous on the part of lawyers. If they had a genuine case, they should take the course of law in dealing with it and if nothing happened; they should protest. Lawyers’ as a fraternity do not have a right to strike, leaving the courts and common man in chaos. What they have done is violation of duty to the courts and the clients. Further ridiculing the policemen, general public and causing public nuisance is something which needs to be dealt very seriously; being lawyers, does not absolve them of their liabilities in anyway.”

Karnataka Law Minister Suresh Kumar said, “I do not think Bangalore would appreciate these kind of agitations by advocates. They had many other avenues to solve their grievances. The general secretary or other office members of the association could have met the city commissioner to address the issue. If that had not paid dividends, they could have come on the streets. The general public think that advocates are problem solvers; instead, we are forcing problems on people, which is not acceptable. What has happened is really unfortunate”, reports Bangalore Mirror.

It is really sad to see people who are supposed to uphold the rule of law are breaking the law. It has been categorically held by the Apex Court that lawyers do not have a right to strike. This protest by lawyers sets a very bad example.

Image Courtesy: DNA