Indefinite fast by lawyers enters Day 2

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 29

The indefinite strike by members of the Dharamsala District Bar Association entered the second day today. The condition of all five members of the Bar, who had been on a fast since yesterday, was stable.

President of the Bar Tek Chand Rana, who is also sitting on a fast, said they had not received any assurance on their demands. However, the Bar members would continue its strike until one of its demands of either abolition of circuit courts in Kangra or establishment of a High Court Bench in Dharamsala was met.

“We were adopting other modes of protest and giving notices of their demands to the High Court and the state government but our pleas were unheard following which we were forced to take this extreme action,” he said.

Jatinder Sharma, spokesperson of the Bar, said they had been forced to take this step. Six circuit courts were established in Palampur, Baijnath, Indora, Jawali, Nurpur and Dehra in Kangra district by a former Chief Justice of the High Court. This was the highest number of circuit courts established in a district. It had affected the livelihood of over 300 advocates in the Dharamsala district courts, he said.

He further said the basic objective of the circuit courts was to deliver justice to people at their doorsteps. If this was the case, then the circuit court of the High Court should also be established at Dharamsala. The state government had already written to the High Court, he said.

Tek Chand Rana said they had met the Chief Justice and other judges with the demand to curtail the circuit courts in Dharamsala.

“Last year, we had received an assurance from the High Court that the number of circuit courts in Kangra districts would be curtailed to three. A proposal was mooted to stop circuit courts at Jawali, Baijnath and Indora. However, a year has passed but no action has been taken,” he said.

The president of the District Bar Association said the advocate had been sitting on chain hunger strike for the past many months. However, the peaceful strike did not have any effect on the authorities. Now they had started fast-unto-death. The members of the Bar would strike work till the circuit courts in Kangra were curtailed, he said.

The advocates, who have sat on fast-unto-death, are Tek Chand Rana, Tarun Sharma, Ankur Soni, Richa Vashisht and Minakshi Hundal. For the second day, none of the advocates went to courts due to strike.