Lawyers across the country ceased to work in courts for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in a protest against the recent amendment made to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The call for the nationwide strike of lawyers was given last month after different bar associations held a meeting in New Delhi.
Lawyers’ bodies have observed strike for the sixth time within two months in the Capital pressing for their demand to scrap the amended code in CrPC what they call “anti-people” and “anti-social”.
The new provision in Sections 41 and 309 of CrPC provides police discretionary right to arrest the accused in an offence punishable up to seven-year-jail-term. Earlier, the arrest was mandatory in all IPC cases but now police can issue notice of appearance instead of arresting the accused and the chargesheet can be filed without the arrest.
The new provision, which received the President’s assent, could lead to a rise in crime as for cognisable offence such as burglary, theft, assault, dowry harassment, snatching, pick-pocketing, stabbing etc. offenders may be left by the police with warning only instead of arrest. This may reduce fear of arrest from minds of criminals who could misuse the provisions under the garb of personal liberty.
Moreover, the other reason for the protest, as some lawyers accept, is related to money. Mostly, criminal lawyers will lose hefty amounts in terms of fees connected to bail.
The Delhi High Court Bar Association office-bearers, including its President and Secretary, also went on to a hunger strike to support the cause of their counterparts’ demands.
In Hyderabad, lawyers in high court wore black badges, held a protest for an hour and took out a massive rally to the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum to the Governor N D Tiwari demanding forthwith withdrawal of the controversial amendment.
In Orissa’s cities Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, lawyers separated from appearing in court yesterday and at Mohali, lawyers did not join courts and prevented litigants form entering court.
Meanwhile, in a latest development, Delhi Police became the first to introduce changes as per the new amendment in the CrPC. The Delhi Police has simplified and introduced transparency in chargesheets. Hence onwards, it is essential to include the name of accused arrested or granted bail or against whom the trial is pending in a separate column—Column 4 of the chargesheet.
Delhi Police Commissioner, Y S Dadwal, has also asked officers to personally handle the process of filing chargesheets, and directed them to seek clearance from him before filing chargesheet in cases for which an inquiry has been sought by him or by an agency appointed by him. The changes have been made to plug loopholes in investigations.
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