Recently, the Allahabad High Court has asked the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh to issue Guidelines for Advocates to avoid wearing Uniform Outside the Court Premises.
A Division Bench of Justice Sangeeta Chandra and Justice NK Johari was hearing a Criminal Writ Petition seeking fair investigation in a criminal case.
Counsel for the petitioner stated that the petitioner is a practicing Advocate in Civil Court at Lucknow, the opposite parties no. 5 to 20 are also Advocates of the Civil Court. They had assaulted the petitioner in the Civil Court premises and the petitioner had lodged the F.I.R. in Case Crime No. 0284 of 2023 on 22.09.2023 under Sections 323, 504, 506, 392 of the I.P.C. with regard to the incident dated 21.09.2023.
It was stated that he had also approached the District Judge, Lucknow to ensure the preservation of the C.C.T.V. footage of the corridor of multistorey Civil Court Building, Third Floor before the Court of Judicial Magistrate-III, a copy of the application made to the District Judge has been filed as Annexure-04 to the writ petition at page no. 44. He has also been constantly threatened by the private respondents, who are all anti-social elements against some of whom history sheets have been drawn up by the Police Authorities themselves, details of some criminal cases lodged against Dilip Singh S/o Kunwar Bahadur Singh and his other gang members have been mentioned in annexure-05 to the writ petition and also in paragraph-21 of the writ petition.
The petitioner moved an application in this regard on 29.09.2023 to the Chief Justice of India, a copy of which has been filed as Annexure-05 to the writ petition.
The Court directed that the A.G.A. for the State Respondents shall inform the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police of the area concerned of filing of the writ petition and seek instructions with regard to what has been done in pursuance of the F.I.R. lodged by the petitioner.
Further the Senior Registrar of this High Court shall send a copy of this writ petition to the District Judge, Lucknow and seek his comments with regard to the steps taken in pursuance of the letter sent by the petitioner dated 25.09.2023 to preserve the C.C.T.V. footage of the third floor corridor in front of the Court of Judicial Magistrate-III.
Before parting with the Order the Court directed Sri Subhash Chandra Pandey, Advocate appearing on behalf of the opposite party no. 4 to inform the Bar Council of U.P. of several cases being filed alleging Advocates in uniform going to intervene in private property disputes and assisting land mafia in grabbing property of citizens. They usually go to the spot in uniforms. The Bar Council of U.P. issue guidelines that the Advocates should avoid wearing uniforms when outside the Court premises.
Case Detail:
CRIMINAL MISC. WRIT PETITION No. – 8629 of 2023
Petitioner :- Subhansu Singh
Respondent :- State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home Civil Sectt. Lko. And Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Roshan Babu Gupta
Counsel for Respondent :- G.A.,Subhash Chandra Pandey