Allahabad High Court frames contempt charges against Kanpur lawyers for continuing with strike

The Allahabad High Court on Friday framed contempt of court charges against lawyers who have been boycotting courts in Kanpur since March 25..A seven-judge Bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justices Sunita Agarwal, Surya Prakash Kesarwani, Manoj Kumar Gupta, Anjani Kumar Mishra, Dr. Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Mahesh Chandra Tripathi recorded that the striking lawyers did not call off the strike despite its order passed on Thursday."...we find that the aforesaid noticees and the other office bearers, present in the Court today, prima facie, are in deliberate and wilful contempt of this Court by interfering in the administration of justice, calling illegal strike since 16.3.2023 and thereby paralysing the judicial work in the district judgeship at Kanpur Nagar and they have made themselves liable to face contempt proceedings."The Bench noted that by going on strike and paralysing judicial work, the lawyers have scandalized and lowered the authority of the Court, undermined the sanctity of the institution and the dignity of the entire district judiciary..On the last date of hearing, the Court had warned advocates of the Kanpur Bar Association and the Lawyers Association, Kanpur that it would initiate contempt proceedings against them if they did not resume judicial work..On Friday, after viewing a video recording of the strike, the Court noted that the agitating lawyers indulged in sloganeering, using abusive and derogatory language against the entire district judiciary.As opposed to calling off the strike as per the Court's order, the two associations reiterated their call to boycott courts on April 6 and passed a notice to this effect. Additionally, lawyers were ordered not to perform any judicial work, failing which their membership of the two associations would be terminated and ₹5,000 would be recovered from them as penalty.Taking into consideration all the above, the Court noted,"Prima facie, it appears that the aforesaid noticees have failed to discharge the obligation upon them to call off the strike and to resume the judicial work, as directed by this Court yesterday. Thus, prima facie, they appear to be in contempt of Court."Therefore, the Court ordered initiation of contempt proceedings against the following lawyers:Naresh Chandra Tripathi, President, Kanpur Bar Association;Anurag Srivastava, General Secretary, Kanpur Bar Association;Sharad Kumar Shukla, General Secretary, the Lawyers' Association, Kanpur Nagar;Sarvesh Yadav, Vice President, the Lawyers’ Association, Kanpur Nagar;Anoop Kumar Shukla, Vice President, Kanpur Bar AssociationAjay Pratap Singh Chauhan, Secretary, Kanpur Bar Association.The two bodies had called for the strike after a district judge apparently misbehaved with lawyers. They had initially only boycotted the court of the District & Sessions Judge, Kanpur Nagar, but later began abstaining from work in other Kanpur courts.The Chief Justice and the administrative judges of Kanpur Nagar had held meetings separately as well as jointly with the President and the General Secretary of the Kanpur Bar Association, with a view to resolving the issue. Further, the Bar Association had given an assurance that it would call off the strike and resume work. However, they failed to fulfil this promise.The Court thus took up the matter suo motu and directed the lawyers to be present personally before the Court on April 7..[Read Order]