Karnataka High Court sets up committee to restore cordial relations between advocates, police after attack on lawyer

The Karnataka High Court recently constituted a ten member committee to restore amiable relations between advocates, police and the district administration in Chikmagalur in the wake of an attack on a young lawyer by certain police officers, allegedly over a traffic violation..The high-level committee will have the following members:Advocate General Shashikiran Shetty;The Principal Secretary of the Karnataka Home Department;The Director General of Police or his nominee;Senior Advocates Uday Holla, Jayakumar S Patil, V Lakshminarayana, and KN Phaneedra and DR Ravishankar;President of the Advocates Association of Bengaluru, Advocate Vivek Subba Reddy, and;The President of the Chikkamagaluru Bar Association.A bench of Chief Justice PB Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit was also informed on December 5 that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) would be investigating the incident, thereby addressing the demand for an independent probe into the case against the accused police officers.The case before the Court was initiated following a letter by the Advocates Association of Bengaluru (AAB) which highlighted the attack on a lawyer, advocate NT Preetham by police officers at Chikmagalur.The lawyer was said to have been picked up by the police for allegedly not wearing a helmet. The lawyer is said to have then been beaten up by several police officers. The November 30 incident led to protests by lawyers and the suspension of six police officials..Five crimes registered in the matter by Chikkamagaluru Town Police Station.The Court was told on December 5 that the same will be investigated by the CID, Bengaluru under the supervision and monitoring of a Deputy Inspector of Police nominated for the task..The Court appreciated the development but opined that some more measures are required to be taken to restore cordial relations between the police and lawyers and to ensure that such incident do not occur again.Therefore, the Court set up the high level committee for this purpose..The Committee was asked to meet at the Office of the Advocate General in Bengaluru on December 9 and suggest ways to improve amiability between the “stakeholders of Administration of Justice and the Law & Order Agency of the State.”The Committee was also asked to submit recommendations to prevent the recurrence of disputes between such stakeholders. The Committee’s proceedings have to be submitted in a sealed cover before the Court..The Court also reiterated its request that lawyers should not continuing boycotting court work over the incident. In response, the Court was assured that this concern would be shared with the protesting lawyers. The bench expressed its anguish over a submission that police staff were seen conducting protests as well. The Court remarked that the police is expected to show "strict discipline" or it would be a case of the "fence swallowing the crop." The Court, however, stopped short of issuing any adverse orders against the police after the Advocate General assured that the matter is being looked into. "What a section of the police staff has allegedly done is absolutely unacceptable to this Court and to the civil society, to say the least. Since learned Advocate General assures that the matter is being looked into seriously by higher-ups in the Department, we do not, at this stage of the proceeding, deliberate more on the same," the Court said. .The matter will be heard next on December 12. .[Read Order]