Advocates boycott court en masse

Thousands of advocates staged a protest rally against the State government for rejecting sanction to prosecute 54 police officers against whom the CBI has filed charge sheets in connection with a clash between advocates, police and the media personnel at the City Civil Court premises on March 2, 2012.

The advocates, marching from MG Road to Raj Bhavan met the Governor Vajubhai Vala and submitted their memorandum seeking his  intervention to ensure that the guilty were brought to books. 

The CBI had approached the government seeking sanction to prosecute 54 police personnel. The government has refused to grant sanction stating that the police officers were only discharging their duties.  The Advocates’ Association in its memorandum stated that the offence committed cannot be related to discharge of duties and that the question of either seeking prosecution or grant or refusal of prosecution does not arise.
HC Shivaramu, president, The Advocates' Association, Bengaluru said that a writ petition will be filed before the High Court challenging the government's decision.

Rs 500 cost imposed
The High Court imposed cost of Rs 500 each on all the matters on the Advocates’ Association, Bengaluru since the advocates boycotted the court “which resulted in court proceeding becoming infructuous at an enormous cost to the exchequer.”  Justice Ananda Byrareddy passed the order as nop advocate had appeared before the bench.

The Court said that it was noticed that advocates were physically being prevented from entering the court halls by those supporting the boycott call. It said that the Registrar General should take steps to recover the cost in the cases which were posted before the Court. The Registrar General shall consolidate the costs payable in all these cases. The bench further has granted leave to the Registrar General to take recourse to coercive measures, if necessary in recovering the costs with direction to initiate recovery proceedings.