This was a severe clash, as videos emerged on social networking sites showing police scuffles with lawyers in Ghaziabad District Court.
The videos show the police deploying lathi-charges and many lawyers coming out injured from the scene to clean out the campus of the court.
A row between a member of the Bar Association triggered it, bringing lawyers versus the district judge to a boiling point.
With emotions running high, a large number of lawyers surrounded the judge’s chamber, for which the latter called for the police.
Reacting to the wrangling in the chaos, law enforcement officers stormed the courts to disperse the crowd. As they acted, chairs were thrown about during the melee in the court.
Lawyers were visibly angered by police action, vandalizing a police post within the court complex and shouting slogans against the judge.
All legal practices were suspended immediately after the incident as judges went off-duty, and the Bar Association was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting.
Pictures of one lawyer who was reported to have sustained a head injury in the clash were also on social media.
This reminds me of an earlier clash in July 2023 at the Tis Hazari court in Delhi. A brawl between two factions of lawyers created chaos, and some of them were said to have fired what appeared to be homemade firearms.
Luckily, no one was injured during that incident, but it did raise serious security concerns over the presence of weapons inside the court.
Lawyer-police tensions continue as they did during the November 2019 protests, where police officers besieged their headquarters in Delhi to hold a marathon protest after violent clashes with lawyers.
