Karuna on �fast track� to end lawyer-police impasse
Karunanidhi said he would go on an indefinite fast if agitating lawyers and Chennai police fail to end the impasse. The stand adopted by the lawyers is in contrast to return-to-work calls issued to advocates by Chief Justice of India Balakrishnan
IN THE midst of the season for melodramatics, DMK boss and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi says he would go on an indefinite fast if agitating lawyers and the Chennai police fail to end an impasse triggered by the violence outside the Madras High Court last week.
Karunanidhi made the emotional announcement in a statement issued late on Sunday night. “Whether I need to go on fast is based on the decision you take,” he said, adding the date for the fast would be announced later. The chief minister is admitted to a hospital in Chennai, where he is reported to be recuperating from a spinal cord surgery he recently underwent.
He urged the police and lawyers to erase the ’bitterness’ that followed violent clashes, which erupted outside the Madras High Court premises last Thursday.
The lawyers, however, were not moved by the chief ministerial announcement and said they will indefinitely boycott all courts till their calls for action against erring police officials were met by the State government.
The decision to boycott courts was taken at a meeting of lawyers associations in Tamil Nadu. Those in attendance included office bearers from the Madras High Court Advocates Association, Madras Bar Association, Women’s Lawyers Association and the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu amongst others.
The stand adopted by the lawyers is in contrast to return-to-work calls issued to the advocates by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan.
The lawyers’ associations now seek the ouster of the state and city police chiefs and have also demanded that state police units guarding Madras High Court be immediately replaced with Central security forces.
The developments came a day after Madras High Court directed the city police to clarify as to who authorised its entry and lathicharge on lawyers.
Several lawyers were wounded in the police baton charge that touched off violent protests that saw lawyers vent ire on public property and set ablaze a police check post on the court premises.
A Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya and Justices V Dhanapalan and K Chandru at a special sitting Saturday night directed Chennai Police to give specific names and designations of police personnel at whose instance the action was initiated.
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