SC Committee calls lawyers in TN hooligans, also blames police

New Delhi, Mar 6 (PTI) The Justice Srikrishna Committee
report on the Madras High Court violence slammed the lawyers
calling them as "hooligans" and "miscreants" and did not spare
the police for going "berserk" and resorting to force "beyond
what was permissible."

The Committee also held the judges of the Madras High
Court responsible for the present "piquant situation" by
followed a "soft-pedaling policy" in the context of the
protests by lawyers sympathising with the LTTE cause.

The provocation for the violence in the High Court
premises on February 19 was started by the "unruly mob of
lawyers" but "once the police got into action, there was no
stopping them" and they went "berserk" and damaged the court
properties, Justice B N Srikrishna, a retired apex court
judge, said in his interim report.

"My view, albeit prima facie, is that the soft-pedaling
policy followed by the Madras High Court judges has led to the
present piquant situation," he said in his 22-page interim
report submitted before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G
Balakrishnan Thursday.

"It is most unfortunate that the soft policy adopted
by the Acting Chief Justice of High Court and its
administration sent out clearly wrong message that encouraged
and emboldened the lawyers into becoming law breakers,"
the report said.

"The lawyers appears to have been encouraged by the
wrong signals sent out and seemed to think that they could do
anything and get away within the court premises. Regretfully,
far from being the upholders of the rule of law, the lawyers
seem to have behaved as hooligans and miscreants," the report
said.
The report said the police, which was justified in
quelling the unruly and rioting mob of lawyers by use of
force, went "much beyond what was permissible use of force,"
said the report prepared after examining written
representations and CDs on the incident.
The report perused by the three-judge Bench, which
also comprised Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal, was
referred to the Madras High Court and Tamil Nadu Government
for taking appropriate action inluding setting up of a
judicial inquiry under the Commission of Inqiry Act.

Justice Srikrishna, who expressed his unwillingness to
continue with further inquiry, said "unless a detailed inquiry
is made into the role played by each of the lawyers in the
rioting mob as well as each of the constables and or officers
of the police force, it will be difficult to pin-point the
responsibility on the individuals".

Justice Srikrishna went into the background of the
strike called in protest by lawyers to the Sri Lankan
government's policy against LTTE.

"The incidents that transpired over a last month or so
make it clear that the lawyers seemed to be under the
impression that, because they are officers of the court, they
are immune from the process of law and that they could get
away with any unlawful act without being answerable to the law
enforcing agency," the report said. PTI RKS
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