Allahabad HC ‘dissatisfied’ with report on lathi-charge on lawyers, delays case hearing

The Allahabad High Court has expressed dissatisfaction over the preliminary report regarding the investigation into the incident involving police cane charging lawyers at the Hapur district court.

The court on Monday, 18 September, adjourned the hearing of the case until 12 October.

While hearing the PIL, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi showed their dissatisfaction with the preliminary report submitted by state authorities, stating that the statements of the concerned lawyers under section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) had not been recorded.

Appearing on behalf of the lawyers, senior advocate Anil Tiwari submitted before the court that the investigation into the cane charging incident is not being conducted fairly, and even the statements of the lawyers are not being recorded.

He also stated that the FIR of woman lawyer Priyanka Tyagi was received by the police, but it has not been registered.

In response, the court assured that it would consider all aspects of the matter and ensure that no injustice would be done to anyone.

Subsequently, the court fixed 12 October for further hearing in the matter, and by that time, a further report must be submitted by the concerned authorities.

Earlier, on 29 August, police had lathi-charged lawyers at Hapur court when they were protesting the registration of a case against a woman advocate and her father around a week ago.

In the aftermath of this incident, lawyers across the state refrained from judicial work. The work boycott was staged in response to a call made by the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council.

Previously, this court had taken suo motu notice of this incident on 9 September and had directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to submit an interim report before it on the next date of the hearing.