Lawyers in Lucknow, Hapur keep off work in protest over lathicharge

We are with the lawyers of Hapur.

Lawyers in Lucknow and Hapur kept away from judicial work on Wednesday in protest against the alleged lathicharge on advocates in Hapur last month.

Although the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council called off its strike on the issue on September 14 after talks with the chief secretary here, the Lucknow Bar Association decided to continue to abstain from work and lawyers in Ghaziabad joined them Monday.

At a general body meeting of the Lucknow Bar Association on Tuesday, lawyers decided to abstain from judicial work till September 21 and then decide the next course of action, its general secretary Kuldeep Narain told PTI.

He said as no satisfactory action was taken against the police personnel involved in the Hapur incident, there was resentment among lawyers. ''We are with the lawyers of Hapur. The strike will continue till their demands are met,'' Narain added.

The Uttar Pradesh Police on September 15 shunted out three officials, including Hapur's additional superintendent of police, after the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council called off its strike against the incident.

Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mukesh Chandra Verma, Circle Officer (City) Ashok Kumar Sisodhiya and Hapur Nagar SHO Satendra Prakash Singh were transferred out of the district on the directions of the government, Superintendent of Police (Hapur) Abhishek Verma said.

Lawyers in Uttar Pradesh have been on strike since August 30 over the alleged police lathicharge in Hapur the day before.

The lawyers in Hapur have demanded that the district magistrate and the superintendent of police be transferred and the guilty policemen suspended, according to the secretary of the Hapur Bar Association Narendra Sharma.

In Gorakhpur, lawyers were on strike on Tuesday but they resumed work on Wednesday, the president of the Civil Court Lawyers' Association Manoj Pandey said.

The lawyers in Gorakhpur have been on strike since August 30.

The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a three-member committee to prepare an advocate protection bill. According to an official statement, the principal secretary of law is the chairman of the committee.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)