Bar-bench relations: Four court staffers suspended for speaking against lawyers

Lahore Bar Association leaders claim victory.

LAHORE:

District and Sessions Judge Syed Hamid Hussain Shah on Wednesday suspended two readers, an ahlmad (record keeper) and a copyist from service for three months for “delivering speeches against the lawyers’ community” at a seminar held at the Judicial Academy last week.

Readers Muhammad Illyas and Muhammad Nadeem, ahlmad Babar Naveed and copyist Yasir Rizvi were suspended for “embarrassing the lawyers’ community through their unauthorised speeches” at a seminar organised by the Punjab Judicial Academy regarding Court Management and a Culture of Tolerance. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had been present on the occasion.

The suspended staffers will be entitled to draw pay and allowances as admissible under the rules.

The court staffers had said in their speeches that some lawyers tried to force the judges to pass decisions in their favour. They claimed that the lawyers also damaged their [court employees’] reputation by demanding bribes on their behalf. They said sometimes they forcibly took away case files and beat up court staff on resistance, They also said that lawyers often misbehaved with judges and locked court rooms when cases were decided against their wishes.

One of the court staffers suspended, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune they had been invited to the Judicial Academy to speak at the seminar, “but now no one is supporting us”. He refused to elaborate.

The Lahore Bar Association had taken offense to the speeches and demanded that they be terminated. Some LBA leaders had claimed that the chief justice had incited the judges against the lawyers. They alleged that the seminar had been organised to humiliate the lawyers. The LBA president and the general secretary, had accused the chief justice of hatching a conspiracy against lawyers.

The LBA had called a strike on April 9 to protest against the seminar.

Chaudhry Tahir Nasrullah Waraich of the Punjab Bar Council, LHCBA president Shafqat Chohan and LBA president Chaudhary Ishtiaq met with Justice Malik Manzoor, Justice Khawaja Imtiaz, Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Khalid Mehood Khan on Tuesday and placed an LBA resolution before them.

The resolution carried the following demands: the LHC chief justice should tender an apology and take back the words “black sheep” used to refer to lawyers; the court staffers who had used derogatory language for lawyers be dismissed and strict action be taken against the author of those speeches; no references be filed against lawyers without being discussed with LBA representatives; and a judicial inquiry be ordered into an incident in which Kahna police allegedly thrashed two lawyers and shot their nude video.

An LBA representative told The Express Tribune that the LBA withdrew the demand for an apology from the chief justice after they saw the video recording of the conference discovering that the chief justice had not called the lawyers black sheep.

LBA president Chaudhary Ishtiaq said the matter between the bar and bench stood resolved as the rest of their demands had been fulfilled.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2014.