The High Court of Karnataka witnessed high drama today when Justice Dinakaran continued to dispense duties as the Chief Justice.

On November 4, the Advocates Association of Bangalore passed a resolution to refrain from attending all courts and tribunals in the State in the event that Justice Dinakaran continued sitting as the Chief Justice. A petition was filed in the Karnataka High Court against the boycott by M.P. Gundappa and Doddamani, which was heard by a Division Bench comprising Justices Manjula Chellur and B.V. Nagrathna.

At the hearing on November 7, Senior Advocates R.N. Narasimhamurthy and Mahale appeared for the Advocates Association and argued that the resolution had called for the lawyers to abstain from appearing in courts and it was not a boycott. Subramanya Jois and Pramila Nesargi, Senior Advocates, urged the court not to pass any orders against the resolution. However, the Bench stayed the resolution.

Today, the drama slowly unfolded before Court Hall 1, where Justice Dinakaran continued to preside over hearings. Lawyers assembled outside his court and called out slogans against him. The protests continued even after Justice Dinakaran requested representatives of the Advocates Association of Bangalore to permit him to continue dispensing his constitutional duties. Vulgar language was the norm, with several lawyers using abusive language in the court hall. Visibly upset, Justice Dinakaran left the court.

The protests were then carried over to the other court halls. Justices V. Gopalagowda [pictured right] and A.V. Nagrathna [pictured left], however, refused to stop hearing matters. In a vain attempt to make the Judges rise from their seat, the protesters sang the national anthem, and when that did not work, the national song. Having failed, they locked the court hall from outside and hurled abuses, books and paper balls at Justices Gopalagowda and Nagrathna.

It took the presence of Shankar Bidari, the Commissioner of Police, to unlock the doors and let the Judges out. In the resulting melee, sources say that Justice Gopalagowda was assaulted by miscreants. Earlier, a Deccan Herald reporter Venkatesh was beaten up by lawyers.

K.N. Puttegowda, the President of the Advocates Association, denied the involvement of the Association's members in the violence, and told Bar & Bench that it was a result of some miscreants who, he suspects, came specifically to tarnish the reputation of the Association. "Our boycott was meant to be symbolic, peaceful, and specifically to protest unethical practices and corruption that has crept into the system," he said, expressing regret for the violence.

He also denied that Justice Gopalagowda was targeted during the protest. He clarified, "We honoured the stay of the resolution passed by the Court, and only asked the lawyers to exercise their discretion and requested them not to attend court as a symbolic measure of protest. We [just] want the Supreme Court collegium to take a prompt decision on Justice Dinakaran's elevation."