The Supreme Court on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of the assault on Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia and advocate Muskan Gupta at a Greater Noida Court.A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra emphasized the Court's disapproval of bar association strikes and said that manhandling of two Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) members warranted the Court's interference."This court in repeated judgments has deprecated the strikes of bar associations. Hence a strike by members of the bar affects the litigants who are vital stakeholders in the justice system. At this stage there is no reason why this court should not accept what is placed before this court. We are of the view that manhandling of two scba members warrants interference of this court and it is in violating of binding principles laid down by this court," the Court stated.Bhatia is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and earlier served as SCBA's Honorary Secretary. On Wednesday, he reportedly had his band snatched inside a district court in Noida where lawyers were observing a strike.The matter was mentioned today by Attorney General R Venkataramani, as well as Senior Advocates Vikas Singh, KK Venugopal and Jayant Bhushan.Singh underlined that a Constitution Bench judgment also dictates that lawyers cannot be obstructed from entering courts.The Bar Council of India (BCI) informed the Court that it had noted the incident and issued notice to the Greater Noida and Ghaziabad Bar Associations.Singh further informed the Court that advocate Muskan Gupta was assaulted as well."Suddenly strike started. They snatched my band. They pushed me saying 'Yeh Dilli se hai' and my head struck on the almirah," Gupta told the Court.Accordingly, the Court directed its Registry to initiate a suo motu case based on the incident, issued notice to President of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) Bar Association, and listed the matter for hearing on April 1."Let the President and Secretary of Bar Association be personally present," the Court added.The Court further directed the District judge at Gautam Buddh Nagar to ensure that CCTV footage of the incident is preserved pending further orders."District judge shall also take a report from admin staff attached to the staff of Judge Pathak where Adv Muskan Gupta was allegedly manhandled. The copies of the report of district judge shall be placed before the registrar of this court. The report shall identify the specific persons involved in this incident," the Court added.Notably, the SCBA on Wednesday had condemned the assault on Bhatia and had called for action against the lawyer who attacked him.Thereafter, on Thursday morning, the BCI took cognisance of the incident and said that prima facie, it was a case of gross professional misconduct. It had also issued notice to Greater Noida and Ghaziabad Bar Associations.
TAGS: Supreme Court suo motu cognisance assault Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia
