Delhi’s seven district court bar associations will abstain from judicial work on Tuesday after a lawyers’ coordination committee accused police officials at Shahdara police station of mishandling an alleged assault on an advocate and threatening lawyers during a subsequent visit to the station.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting held through video conference on Monday evening by the coordination committee of the district bar associations. The committee has demanded an impartial investigation and the immediate suspension of Assistant Commissioner of Police Manasvi Vashishth and the station house officer concerned.
According to the committee, the dispute began after advocate Lalit Bansal was allegedly assaulted and suffered a serious head injury. A first information report was registered at Shahdara police station on the complaint of advocate Amulya Ratan, the report said.
Some lawyers visited the police station on 23 October seeking action and the arrest of those accused in the alleged assault. The committee said the ACP and the station house officer assured them that arrests would be made. Lawyers later alleged that the accused had instead been released, prompting them to return to the police station to seek an explanation.
The committee has alleged that ACP Manasvi Vashishth behaved improperly with the lawyers and displayed a revolver to threaten them during that interaction. It has also alleged that a separate first information report was subsequently registered against the lawyers at Shahdara police station. These allegations were made by the lawyers’ coordination committee and were not independently established in the supplied report.
The dispute has now extended beyond the original police complaint to the functioning of Delhi’s district court system. A day-long abstention from judicial work across all seven district courts could affect hearings and other proceedings, although the supplied report does not provide details of the number of cases or litigants likely to be affected.
The committee said the protest was also about the safety and dignity of advocates. Its secretary Tarun Rana linked the action to the alleged assault on Bansal, while secretary Anil Basoya described the alleged confrontation involving the ACP and the subsequent case against lawyers. The committee’s account presents the strike as a response to both the handling of the original complaint and the conduct alleged at the police station.
The committee has sent letters about the matter to the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, the Delhi Police Commissioner, the Bar Council of Delhi and other concerned authorities. Its chairman Neeraj and general secretary Narvir Dabas appealed to bar members to remain united.
The immediate scheduled development is the lawyers’ abstention from judicial work on Tuesday across Delhi’s seven district courts. The supplied report does not state whether the police department or the officials named in the allegations have issued a response.
