Three advocates petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking the registration of FIRs against all the police personnel who had besieged the state police headquarters on Tuesday in protest against attacks on colleagues by lawyers.
Apart from seeking prosecution of the police agitators on the charge of criminal misconduct, the joint petition by G.S. Mani, Rajesh Kumar Maurya and Pradeep Kumar Yadav demanded disciplinary action against the cops.
It has cited Section 3 of the Police Forces Restriction of Rights Act, 1966, which prohibits police personnel from participating in protests. Violation entails a jail term of up to two years.
The petition has urged the apex court to form a special investigation team (SIT), headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court or Delhi High Court, to probe the conduct of the police agitators and fix accountability. It has sought “severe” action against the cops who “threatened the lawyers”.
Lawyers had clashed with the police at the Tis Hazari courts on Saturday following a quarrel over parking between an advocate and a policeman.
Several police personnel and lawyers were injured, with one lawyer receiving gunshot injuries. Lawyers have struck work, boycotting all the lower courts in Delhi, since then and have also roughed up a couple of policemen.
Senior police officers have for now placated the ranks by promising to move a review petition against certain directions that Delhi High Court had passed against the police after the Tis Hazari clash, and pledging action against the lawyers who had assaulted police personnel.
The lawyers’ petition before the apex court has alleged that some senior police officers have circulated fake videos and false messages on social media, making the situation more threatening. It claims the police’s conduct has made lawyers and the general public insecure.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawyer’s oral plea asking it to restrain the media from reporting on the lawyer-police conflict.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the advocate to approach Delhi High Court since it had already constituted a judicial inquiry into the clashes.