Allahabad High Court’s 7 Judges Bench Frames Contempt Charges Against Kanpur Lawyers For Continuing Strike Despite HC’s Order

It may be noted that the lawyers of the Kanpur district are on continuous strike since March 16 inter alia to press their demand for the transfer of the district judge Kanpur Nagar.

A full bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker, Justice Sunita Agarwal, Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta, Justice Anjani Kumar Mishra, Justice Dr. Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi passed this order as it observed this:

“(the lawyers in contempt) have wilfully and deliberately committed the contempt of the order dated 6.4.2023 of this Court, by restraining the lawyers from performing the judicial work in the District Court at Kanpur Nagar, affixing a handwritten notice dated 6.4.2023 reiterating the resolution dated 25.3.2023 for an indefinite strike, and threatening the lawyers with adverse consequences in case any one of them attends the court proceedings”

The bench also observed that the lawyers wilfully and deliberately committed the contempt of Court by interfering in the administration of justice, calling illegal strike since 16.3.2023 and thereby paralyzing the judicial work at the District Judgeship at Kanpur Nagar.

It may be recalled that on Thursday, taking serious note of the continued strike of the Kanpur Bar Association and the Lawyers Association, the Allahabad High Court's 7 Judges bench directed the office bearers of the Associations to appear before the Court on Friday.

On Friday, the lawyers present before the Court submitted that despite the court’s order to resume the court’s work, they did not take any efforts to suspend their strike, and rather, they decided to continue with the strike.

In fact, most of the lawyers present before the Court, the office bearers of the aforementioned advocates’ associations made a submission before the Court that they are willing to go to jail.

Against this backdrop, the Court noted that even when the HC’s notices were served upon the noticees on April 6, no general body meeting had been called by the office bearers of both Associations at Kanpur Nagar till they appeared in the Court and the directions issued by this Court to resume the judicial work forthwith and to purge the contempt, have been flouted.

The Court also took into account a video recording of the strike, as made available by the District Judge, wherein the agitating lawyers were indulged in slogan shouting, using abusive and derogatory language against the entire district judiciary, including the District Judge.

In view of this, the Court found the lawyers to be in deliberate and wilful contempt of the Court by interfering in the administration of justice, and framed contempt charges against the following lawyers:

• Naresh Chandra Tripathi, President, Kanpur Bar Association;
• Anurag Srivastava, General Secretary, Kanpur Bar Association;
• Sharad Kumar Shukla, General Secretary, the Lawyers' Association, Kanpur Nagar;
• Sarvesh Yadav, Vice President, the Lawyers’ Association, Kanpur Nagar;
• Anoop Kumar Shukla, Vice President, Kanpur Bar Association
• Ajay Pratap Singh Chauhan, Secretary, Kanpur Bar Association

It may be noted that initially, the lawyers’ associations were only boycotting the Court of District & Sessions Judge, Kanpur Nagar, but later on, they extended their boycott to the entire Courts of Kanpur Judgeship since 25th March 2023.

On the administrative side, the Chief Justice and the Administrative Judges of Kanpur Nagar, held meetings separately as well as jointly with the President and the General Secretary of Kanpur Bar Association, Kanpur Nagar, and tried to resolve the issue.

In the said meetings, the President and the General Secretary of the Kanpur Bar Association had earlier given assurance to call off the strike and resume their work, however, they deviated from their assurance and did not resume work.

In view of this, the HC took up the matter suo motu and directed the lawyers in contempt to be present personally before the Court on Friday.

Case title – In Re vs. Zila Adhivakta Sangh Allahabad [PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 15895 of 2015]

Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (AB) 122

Click Here To Read/Download Order