Delhi High Court initiates hearing on Tis Hazari clashes
The Delhi High Court on Sunday issued a notice and sought response of the Centre, Delhi police commissioner and the chief secretary on the clash between lawyers and police at Tis Hazari court here. A bench headed by Chief Justice D N Patel, which took suo motu cognisance of media reports, asked police officers, who were involved in the clashes, to be present in the court at 3 pm when it will commence hearing on the issue.
The decision to hold an urgent hearing was taken after the chief justice concluded a meeting with senior judges of the high court and other senior officers of the Delhi Police at 12.30 pm. The bench said it wants to defuse the situation and the judges held a meeting for four hours last evening and they are here since morning to calm down the situation.
The court also issued notices to the Bar Council of Delhi and all the bar associations of the Delhi district courts. Lawyers and police had clashed at Tis Hazari Court complex here on Saturday afternoon during which at least 10 police personnel and several lawyers were injured while 17 vehicles vandalised, according to officials and eyewitnesses.
Lawyers had claimed that four of their colleagues were injured, including one in police firing, but police denied that it had opened fire. The injured included Additional Commissioner of Police (North District) Harinder Kumar, SHOs of Kotwali and civil lines, and the operator of deputy commissioner of police (north), police had alleged.
Undertrials may be made witnesses
Undertrials lodged in the lock-up rooms at the Tis Hazari Court during the police-lawyers clash on Saturday, may be made witnesses in the case, sources in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident said on Sunday.
According to SIT sources, the undertrials had a narrow escape after the violence broke out and people started setting vehicles alight.
"The smoke of burnt tyres reached their rooms. However, the security personnel acted swiftly, formed a human chain and shifted all the undertrials safely to the Tihar Jail in the nick of time," a SIT official said.
"If we had not shifted the undertrials from the lock up rooms on time, the situation could have gone out of control. They could have escaped taking advantage of the situation. We shudder at the thought of what could have happened if the undertrials and mob had come face to face. We also thank God that no undertrial lost consciousness due to the smoke," a senior police officer present during the clash told IANS.
(With inputs from PTI)
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