Lawyers clash outside Delhi court, say they are 'deshbhakts' not 'goons'

Ugly scenes of violence were witnessed outside Patiala House Court in Delhi where two groups of lawyers clashed with each other on Wednesday. Pro-India slogans were raised by lawyers who called themselves 'deshbhakts' and referred to those stopping them as 'deshdrohi'.

The group of lawyers which attacked journalists on Monday, were yet again present in the campus and claimed that cannot be termed 'goons'. "People who said "Pakistan Zindabad" have been made heroes and we are being called "gundas"," a protesting lawyer said.

The scuffle between lawyers broke out before the hearing into the sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar. There were reportedly two groups of people - pro-Kanhaiya and anti-Kanhaiya - who got into a fight.

When the things went out of control, the police closed the main gates of the court building. Angry lawyers later turned their ire towards the media persons who were covering the drama. They even assaulted a Firstpost journalist Tariq Anwar. He said that some lawyers hit him and the police did nothing to save him from them. Lawyer Vikram Chauhan who attacked the media persons on Monday was leading Wednesday’s march of lawyers.

The scuffle comes at at a time when the Supreme Court specifically instructed the Delhi Police to brace up the security to avoid any untoward incident in the Patiala House Court premises. The SC had given the orders during a hearing of the plea in which action was sought against the lawyers who thrashed journalists who were covering the JNU incident.

Over 400 journalists had taken out a procession on Tuesday demanding action against the hooligan lawyers. The Supreme Court had heavily on the unruly behaviour of the lawyers and ordered that both the clients and media persons should be given security in the premises of the courts.

However, just a few hours after the SC direction, some lawyers attacked each other right outside the court building. A bunch of lawyers raised pro-India slogans and mocked the others. It led to a scuffle and they started hitting each other.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer and MP KTS Tulsi has demanded strict action against hooligan lawyers saying that they have defied the Supreme Court order. Another Senior Lawyer of the SC, Sanjay Hegde said that such behaviour on part of the lawyers is unacceptable.

Condemning the attack noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan said “It is clearly a concerted fascist onslaught with the protection of the central government. It is time for everybody to wake up. This is a well planned conspiracy between the Delhi police commissioner , home ministry and the other functionaries of the government". He even demanded that an FIR should be lodged against the lawyers involved in violence.

He said that these people don’t deserve to be called lawyers and they must be arrested.

The onlookers allege that despite Delhi Police being present at the court complex, they chose not to interfere in the matter and remained neutral.