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Assault on Nayagaon lawyer: Strike to continue, Punjab & Haryana Bar Body announces
Criminal case registered against ‘unidentified’ persons’; show-cause notice issued to Nayagaon SHO for failing to register plaint
Protesting against the alleged assault on a lawyer in Nayagaon, the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana has announced to continue with their strike on Thursday even as Punjab Police told the high court (HC) that a criminal case has been registered in the matter. The strike started on December 15 at noon.
In a hearing on suo motu petition initiated by the HC in view of the strike, the Punjab government counsel informed the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry that a criminal case has been registered at Nayagaon police station against unknown persons on the complaint of the lawyer concerned and a show-cause notice has been issued to the station house officer (SHO), asking why he did not act on the complaint. The allegations are that on November 30, cops from Hisar, Haryana, entered the house of a lawyer in Nayagaon and assaulted him. The Haryana cops were reportedly investigating a case from Hisar. The lawyers are terming the incident a case of abuse of power by the police. As per lawyers, despite written representations, the police did not act.
During the hearing, lawyers questioned why no one has been named in the FIR and why sections under which offences have been recorded have been “diluted”. They also alleged that the SHO concerned had been acting against lawyers for some time now and not listening to their complaints. In view of this, the HC deferred the hearing for December 24.
The Bar body, in a communication later, said that the strike would continue as no one has been named in the FIR. Bar bodies of Panchkula and Chandigarh also said that they would observe a no-work day on Thursday on a call given by the HC Bar Association. It is learnt the HC Bar body has given a no-work day call across Punjab and Haryana in the wake of this incident. The court has been asking the lawyers to not abstain from work and take up issues on the judicial side. On Tuesday, the court reminded the lawyers of their duties and expressed its concerns and said that the litigants coming in from far-off places would be harassed. The court also asserted that the concept of strike was “foreign” to the Bar and further added that the Supreme Court has already declared strike calls by the Bar illegal. However, lawyers have not budged so far.
