The agitated lawyers on the court premises in Sakchi. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, March 20: Advocates of Jamshedpur District Bar Association (JDBA) have gone on an indefinite strike from today in protest against the alleged high-handedness of the district judge in ordering the traffic police to confiscate vehicles of lawyers parked near the area earmarked for judicial officers? vehicles.

A decision to this effect along with demanding the immediate transfer of district judge R.N. Verma was taken at an emergent general body meeting of the Bar Association called this afternoon.

The strife between the court and lawyers started this morning when deputy superintendent of police (traffic) F.K.N. Kujur reached the court with a truck to seize all the two-wheelers parked near the area earmarked for vehicles of judicial officers.

Coming to know about this, the advocates got enraged and stopped work. Then, they forced the police to put down their vehicles. They also forcefully entered the locked hall on the ground floor of the association building and declared that to be library. In the past two years, the advocates have stalled work for five times in support of their demands for a canteen, library, additional entrance in the association buidling and public toilet on the court premises.

While the association justified their stir, the judicial officers called it unwarranted as the court was considering their demands.

Sources said, actually, the hall had been earmarked for canteen, but the lawyers were opposed to it. ?Today, they broke open the lock of the canteen hall and entered into it declaring it to be a library,? said sources. Vice-president of the Bar Association Ajit Kumar Ambastha said they were forced to go on strike because of the indifferent attitude of the court towards their problems and its high-handedness.

?The association has been demanding a separate canteen, an additional entrance to the association building, functioning of all the courts ?juvenile, railway and sub-divisional officer?s ? from the same premises. But the court does not pay heed. Still we have been doing our work in the interest of the litigants,? said Ambastha adding, ?taking advantage of our liberal attitude the district judge today ordered the police to confiscate our vehilces.?

He further said that the association will not tolerate the high-handedness of the court administration. ?If the district judge had any problem, he should have given in writing to the association requesting that no vehicle should be parked near the place where cars of judicial officers are parked. But instead, he ordered confiscation of our vehilces, which cannot be tolerated.?

Registrar of the court N.K. Srivastava, however, dismissed the allegation saying that the court administration was forced to order the police for confiscation of the vehicles after repeated requests to the Bar Association fell on its deaf ears.

?The Bar Association was intimated several times to ensure that no vechile is parked near the area earmarked for the judicial officers? vehicles, but they would not listen.