Leave bitterness behind

While the advocates’ outrage at being targeted by the police is under-standable, they need to reflect on how it all started.

Every problem, however complex and seemingly intractable, has a solution, but a solution is possible only when parties to the dispute are ready to leave aside the bitterness of the past incidents, keep their egos firmly in check and try to appreciate the other’s point of view. When parties to the dispute happen to be three powerful entities – the lawyers’ community, the police and the media – who have no option but to work together in the interest of democracy, it is all the more necessary for them to resolve their differences as quickly as possible and move on.

There is no doubt that the March 2 violence at the city civil court complex in Bangalore, in which a number of lawyers, media persons and the police were injured and properties including vehicles were damaged, is highly condemnable and it will remain a black mark on the city’s fair name.

Ever since that day’s incidents, the trust between the lawyers and the police on one hand, and the bonhomie between the lawyers and the media on the other, have all but vanished and there is a sense of bitterness all around. The mediamen are aggrieved with the lawyers for unprovoked violence on them and not allowing them to do their duty, the lawyers are angry with the media for branding them as ‘goondas,’ and the lawyers are also livid with the police for applying ‘third degree methods’ on them.

So, there is a spate of complaints and counter-complaints, but lawyers being lawyers, reports from across the state suggest that they have filed more than 2,000 cases against the media and the police. The high court bench headed by chief justice Vikramjit Sen (who has since recused) alone is looking into a batch of 187 cases and in one of them, then police chief Shankar Bidari and the commissioner of police Jyotiprakash Mirji are named as accused number one and two. Even chief minister Sadananda Gowda has not been spared.

The judiciary is incensed that as the violence unfolded that day, the police unleashed their brute power on the black-coated community. The enforcers of the law even entered the court buildings, chased and beat up many innocent lawyers and did not spare even a sessions court judge. In retaliation to burning of a police vehicle and stones being hurled at the policemen on duty, the police also set fire to the vehicles of some of the advocates.
Senior police officers on duty allegedly failed to restrain their junior colleagues who went on the rampage.

While the advocates’ outrage at being targeted by the police is understandable, they need to reflect on how it all started and where the entire provocation came from.

Extreme hardship

It was on January 17 that nearly 1,000 advocates belonging to the Advocates’ Association, Bangalore, laid a siege on Mysore Bank circle. They held the city to ransom for over seven hours, leading to a traffic gridlock all over the city and causing extreme hardship to thousands of citizens, including children returning from schools, office-goers returning home and even patients being taken to hospitals by ambulances. The police turned into helpless bystanders as the state home minister ordered the police to show ‘restraint.’ And what was the advocates’ complaint? That three days earlier a policeman had stopped an advocate riding a two-wheeler with two other persons on the pillion without wearing a helmet and subjected him to ‘harassment’!

It was not the first time the advocates were taking the law into their hands and when the media severely criticized their action – some even calling them ‘goonda’ lawyers – the advocates thought that an entire community had been insulted. Their complaint was that some of the electronic media went overboard in criticising the lawyers.

If the Advocates’ Association as a responsible professional body had analysed the situation correctly without giving in to emotions, it would have initiated legal proceedings against the ring-leaders of the siege as well the media organisations which indulged in slanderous criticism. That would have been the right to do.

Instead, the advocates waited for an opportunity to ‘retaliate’ against the media with violence. On March 2, when former minister G Janardhana Reddy was being produced before the special CBI court in the city court complex, the advocates launched an unprovoked attack on the media, throwing stones at them. The electronic media was especially targeted. Some cameramen were beaten up and their cameras were snatched.
The large contingent of police present at the spot did not intervene for nearly two hours. It was only when the police also became victims of lawyers’ fury that they lathi-charged the advocates brutally and indiscriminately.

That unfortunate incident has resulted in wild reactions. The lawyers boycotted the courts for several days demanding the sacking of Bidari and Mirji and ignored the appeals made by the chief justice to return to work. The government initiated a departmental inquiry, transferred some officials and ordered a judicial inquiry. The police have submitted a ‘status report,’ on the investigation so far, but the high court is insisting on a CBI inquiry.
Since the judiciary is also an ‘interested party,’ the chief justice has recused himself from the bench, but will it be enough to ensure impartiality?

It is a no-win situation for everyone concerned and the state government should take the initiative to arrive at an out-of-court settlement as quickly as possible. Those who indulged in wanton violence, whether the police, the advocates or the media persons should be punished and those who suffered physical and material losses should be adequately compensated. The government should bring responsible people from each wing on a common platform for a meaningful discussion and a workable solution. More importantly, a system needs to be put in place for the three wings to establish a working relationship and to restore harmony in their functioning. That’s the best way to move forward.