The Coordination Committee of three major bar associations of the Patna High Court has unanimously passed a resolution to “indefinitely abstain and boycott” the court of the Hon’ble Acting Chief Justice, commencing from the morning of September 18, 2025. The decision comes in response to the perceived mishandling of a case concerning a violent assault on two advocates.
The issue originated when two young lawyers, Ansul Aryan and his wife Manogya Singh, were allegedly assaulted by the staff, security officer, bus driver, and conductor of a Delhi Public School while they were en route to the High Court. According to the resolution, Mr. Aryan sustained injuries, while Ms. Singh was subjected to “verbal abuse and intimidating sexual posturing,” and her mobile phone was snatched and broken.
The matter was brought before a Criminal Motion Bench of the Patna High Court on September 9, 2025. Taking suo moto cognizance of the assault, the Division Bench directed the personal appearance of the Station House Officer (S.H.O.) of Rupaspur Police Station. The court further directed the Registry to register a suo moto criminal writ application titled “In the matter of Assault on the Advocate.”
However, when the case was subsequently listed before a bench presided over by the Hon’ble Acting Chief Justice on September 10, 2025, the proceedings took a different direction. This bench framed a new issue, questioning “whether Suo Moto Judicial notice could be taken and seeking formal approval of Acting Chief Justice on administrative side is correct or not.” Furthermore, the Acting Chief Justice’s bench dispensed with the personal appearance of the S.H.O., an order that had been passed by a coordinate Division Bench a day earlier.
During the hearing on September 17, 2025, senior members of the Bar and representatives of the Coordination Committee requested the recall of the order dated September 10, arguing that “order of one Coordinate Bench Could not have been interfered by another Coordinate Bench and that it was reflecting poorly on the Patna High Court.”
The resolution expresses the Bar’s sentiment that the bench led by the Acting Chief Justice was “not sensitive about the real issue i.e. assault on the two lawyers.” It further alleges that the court was “somehow trying to linger the matter of the real issue of assault and diffuse the matter,” noting that the school’s management is “famed to have deep inroads into corridors of Power.”
Citing the “anguish & sentiment of the members of Bar,” the Coordination Committee, comprising the Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Secretaries of the Advocate Association, Lawyer’s Association, and the Bar Association, resolved to boycott the Acting Chief Justice’s court indefinitely. The resolution has been communicated to the Registrar General for necessary action.
