Advocates at the veranda of the fast track court from where their furniture was removed. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, May 30: Advocates associated with the district Bar association today boycotted civil courts and started demonstrating after they got a taste of displacement without notice.

About 40 advocates were in for a surprise this morning when they came to the court and found their chairs and tables in the veranda of the fast-track court removed.

The chairs and tables were makeshift chambers for these advocates. Some of the advocates have been occupying the space for five years. More advocates continue to occupy the veranda, which sources said was illegal. The furniture were removed on the directive of judicial commissioner D.N. Upadhayay. The advocate demanded the immediate removal of Upadhayay. They decided to continue their boycott tomorrow also.

Agitated advocates said the seats were removed without any prior information or alternate sitting arrangement. “The seats were removed at night when I was not in court. A person cannot be displaced without being rehabilitated. What was the need of doing this when we are not trespassers?” an advocate asked.

However, court officials said it was wrong on the part of advocates to claim their right over the veranda. “How a court veranda can be an office of an advocate?” a court official added.

But Brijmohan Singh Yadav, an advocate who was displaced from the veranda, said he was going to lodge an FIR at Kotwali police station. “My three chairs are missing from the veranda. I will inform the matter to Kotwali police for proper investigation,” he said, adding that he had paid Rs 700 for each chair to the Ranchi District Bar Association (RDBA) in 2002.

RDBA has convened a meeting to resolve the issue. The meeting, RDBA president S.P. Agrawal said, will be held on June 2 from 9am on the civil court premises. “No lawyer will attend civil courts in the meantime,” he added.

Judicial commissioner Upadhayay had ordered the removal of the furniture to make space for a mediation centre, said Kafil-ur-Rahman, the president of Indian Advocate Front.

“Yesterday the acting chief justice of Jharkhand High Court M.Y. Eqbal had come to see the place on the civil court premises as a mediation centre is to established here,” said Kafil-ur-Rahman.