The Supreme Court requested the Odisha DGP to appear before it via videoconference on December 14 to explain the actions taken to cope with the situation as striking attorneys in Odisha continue to vandalise courts on Monday.
“We will put all of them into custody… No solution. If a thousand people need to be arrested, let them be arrested. We don’t care. If this is what you do, we are not going to hear,” an angry Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.
“If the police are unable to control it, we will send paramilitary forces. We will ask the Centre for it. You (police) better pull up your socks,” the Bench told the state police as it asked them to ensure there was no disruption of court proceedings in Odisha due to lawyers’ strike and protest.
One of the district court locations is said to have been ransacked by the attorneys calling for a permanent bench of the state high court in western Odisha.
It also requested an explanation from the Bar Council of India (BCI) regarding the suspension of the lawyers’ licences, and to what extent.
The Bench gave the orders after viewing some videos of the protest and reading an affidavit submitted by the Registrar General of the Orissa High Court, which stated that despite the top court’s order of November 28, reports had been received from some district judges, including that of Sambalpur, about members of Bar associations failing to participate in court work.
There were 924 cases listed there, but none of them could be heard since the Sambalpur district judge and other judicial officials were stopped from entering the court premises on November 30. As a result, they had to leave without convening courts.
“On one hand, you are making demands for a Bench of the high court and, on the other, you are doing nothing. The litigants are the sufferers. You are disrupting the court proceedings,” it noted.
The Supreme Court had urged the BCI to take appropriate measures, including suspending licences for striking attorneys, on November 28 in response to the bar association members’ agitation in various districts of Odisha.
“We would expect the BCI to take appropriate action against members of the different bar associations and logically, we would expect their licences to be suspended at least till the work is resumed,” the Bench had said.
The Bench had previously stated that it expected the police to make all necessary preparations for the entry and exit of the judges, willing members of the Bar, and litigants. The administration may take the necessary actions, including preventive arrest or other measures, it had stated.
Prasanta Patnaik