CJI bats for CISF or dedicated security wing for courts

Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Wednesday said that he has written to the Union government to consider providing CISF cover in courts in view of recent “unruly incidents”, saying lawyer-police clash at Tis Hazari courts here could have been avoided, had there been such dedicated security.

The bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to consider even creating a dedicated wing in CISF for deployment in courts.

Mehta agreed to consider the suggestion, saying the CISF was providing security in the Madras High Court.

Tis Hazari courts here witnessed unsavoury clash in November 2019 after a parking row, resulting into injuries to both lawyers and policemen and subsequent boycott of work by advocates' association and Delhi police personnel.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, acting as amicus curiae, submitted the view of the Bar Council of India should be sought as lawyers may face a problem if such specialised security was put in place in courts.

The CJI, however, said deployment of trained security forces at some of the courts could be undertaken at the instance of chief justice of respective high courts.

The court was hearing a writ petition filed by Pradyuman Bisht in 2015 wherein directions were issued earlier for installing CCTV cameras inside the courtrooms.

On December 13, a separate bench sought a response from the Centre and all the states on a plea for establishing a dedicated and specialised force for giving “foolproof security” to all courts, judges, lawyers, litigants and witnesses in the country, on a PIL filed by advocate Durga Dutt on behalf of his colleague Karunakar Mahalik. First woman chairperson of Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, Darwesh Yadav was shot dead in June 2019 in Agra civil courts. Several other incidents of firing and murder had also taken place in district courts.