Litigants suffer as lawyers at Chandigarh courts continue strike
Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Chandigarh, July 25
Judicial work in the District Courts here has been adversely affected for the past four days due to a strike by lawyers in protest against the Tenancy Act, 2019.
The courts are adjourning the cases due to non-appearance of the advocates in hearings. This has caused harassment and inconvenience to large numbers of the people visiting court to attend hearing in their cases.
On an average, over 200 cases are filed every day in the District Court, while the pendency of cases is 1,14,166. The pendency increased by over 50% in the past four years.
Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Dadu Majra, said his case was pending in the court. When he visited the court today, he was informed that the advocates were not attending hearings. Due to the strike, his case was adjourned.
Rohit Khullar, president, District Bar Association (DBA), Chandigarh, said they were fighting for the cause of the public. The new Tenancy Act was against the common man who would suffer more if it was implemented.
They have submitted their representations to the authorities concerned, but nobody called them for talk. He said the Act was framed without consulting them.
Vinod Verma, an advocate, said under the new Act, the Collector or the Deputy Collector would hear rent cases despite being not well conversant with the judicial procedure.
Meanwhile, the advocates today took out a car rally from the District Court complex towards the Punjab and Haryana High court.
Khullar said the executive members of the High Court Bar Association assured to give full support to the agitation. Parminder Singh, secretary of the DBA, said there was no response from the Administration to resolve the issue. In view of this, the executive body had decided to intensify the stir, he added.
