Cases pile up in HC as lawyers boycott court

Madurai: As a majority of the advocates practising in the Madurai bench of the Madras high court began their indefinite court boycott on Wednesday, many cases listed for hearing were adjourned by a week to a month.
As the protests escalated, a section of the advocates staged a rail roko stir at the Madurai railway junction.
The advocates are on strike demanding withdrawal of an amendment to the Rules of the Advocates Act that debars advocates from practice for erring and misbehaviour.The Madras high court brought the amendment in May this year.
Due to the absence of advocates, hearing on many cases were adjourned, while in some cases petitioners appeared as party in person and prayed for adjournment.
A public interest litigation (PIL) petition that sought a direction to the state's chief secretary to introduce payment of electricity charges on a monthly basis, was adjourned to Monday, while a case against state minister Rajendra Balaji was adjourned by a week.
V Vignesh Raguram, a 3rd year student at the Government Law College, Madurai, said in his PIL that there were 2,03,87,000 power consumers in the state and the electricity department collected electricity charges on a bi-monthly basis, which affected the consumers at large.
He said many states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka and the Union territory of Puducherry, collected electricity charges on a monthly basis. Due to the bi-monthly collection in the state, the consumers are forced to shell out more money. Demanding monthly collection, a representation was sent to the chief secretary on December 9 last year. But no action was taken, the petition said.
When the petition came up for admission before a division bench of justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S S Sundar, it adjourned the case to Monday.
In the case filed against the minister, the petitioner P Sivasubramanian of Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar said his brother Meenakshi Sundaram, who was councillor, was murdered on May 13, 2014 and he suspected seven persons, including state minister Rajendra Balaji, of having a hand in the murder. He wanted them to be booked, but the police refused to take action, the petitioner said.
He said that when a television channel interviewed Rajendra Balaji on the murder, the minister openly threatened the petitioner.
Following this, he filed a complaint before the judicial magistrate court seeking to register a case against the minister by producing a CD allegedly containing the threat given by the minister. But the court dismissed his complaint on April 28, 2016.
Challenging the order, he filed a petition before the high court bench. When it came up for admission before justice P Devadass, the judge adjourned the case by a week.