Lawyers march through Chennai to celebrate 'victory'

Chennai, March 19 (IANS) Over 2,000 lawyers marched through Chennai Thursday to celebrate their 'victory' following the suspension of two senior police officials for their role in clashes with lawyers in the Madras High Court complex Feb 19.

Madras High Court Advocates' Association President Paul Kanagaraj, who led the procession, told reporters that representatives of the legal fraternity, who had gathered here from the entire state, would decide their future course of action after the rally ended.

'Though we are celebrating the victory achieved through the verdict of the full bench of the Madras High Court yesterday (Wednesday) ordering the suspension of two senior police officials for their role in the brutal assault on our brethren a month ago, we will continue our struggle to bring all errant officials to book including Commissioner (K.) Radhakrishnan, (Director General of Police K.P.) Jain and others,' Kanagaraj said.

The high court bench comprising S. Mukhopadhyay, V. Dhanapalan and K. Chandru ordered the suspensions of additional commissioner of police A.K. Vishwanathan and then joint commissioner J. Rama Subramani (later transferred to Coimbatore).

The decision came after the police commissioner told the court in an affidavit that Vishwanathan and Subramani were responsible for ordering the baton charge on lawyers twice in the high court premises without proper authorisation Feb 19.

The violence had resulted in injuries to over 50 lawyers and a judge and led to destruction of public property, including government and private vehicles, and the burning of a police station within the precincts of the Madras High Court.

Many lawyers had expressed happiness over the court's decision Wednesday describing it 'a well-earned triumph of law and justice'.

Retired Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, who was asked by the apex court to probe the incident, had blamed both lawyers and police officials in his interim report submitted to the apex court. But advocates in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry rejected the report.