“I felt threatened for my safety” Judge alleges he was locked inside the court by lawyers
NEW DELHI : Metropolitan Magistrate Aashish Gupta has written a letter to the Registrar of the Delhi High Court on December 23 alleging that he was “threatened” and “locked” inside his courtroom by a group of lawyers.
Mr. Gupta who functions from the Patiala House court complex, alleged that he was prevented from holding court last week after he was locked inside the courtroom by lawyers who then created a ruckus outside his court. The judge has alleged that the counsel for the accused refused to defend the accused whereupon, Gupta ordered legal aid for the accused.
Gupta writes in his letter, “At this moment, secretary NDBA raised his voice. I simply stated that legal aid must be given to the accused, in my opinion, but the atmosphere in the court was extremely sensitive and members of the bar were getting aggressive. Even after passing the order, members of the bar continued to raise their voice and at that moment, I thought it appropriate to go to some other chamber before the situation got out of hand.”
The judge has further stated that, “I may go on to record to say that such an atmosphere of sloganeering and the manner in which the staff and the litigants were stopped from entering my court made it impossible for me to hold the court till about 12 pm as I felt threatened for my safety.”
He states in his letter, “I may bring on record to say that the act of the members of the bar in preventing me from holding of court and the manner in which they acted on December 21 was extremely threatening and has shaken me to the core. I have not been allowed to hold the court due to ruckus created by members of the bar.”
However, Secretary of New Delhi Bar Association has a different version.
“We only told the the judge that since he had recorded the statement of the accused, he cannot hear the matter as he is a witness in the case. However, he continued to hear the matter. We only boycotted the court on December 23. We have also written about the matter to the district judge,”
Incidents of violence and are not a new phenomenon in the district courts of Delhi. Patiala House court complex had attracted attention earlier this year, when a group of lawyers went on a rampage during the hearing of sedition case against JNUSU President, Kanhaiya Kumar.
