HC panel to probe lawyers-judge row

PILIBHIT: The row between Pilibhit lawyers and district judge has reached the Allahabad high court. The high court’s vigilance committee on Tuesday called local lawyers at the office of the district and the sessions court at Pilibhit to file their statements on Wednesday. The move comes after the chairman of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh represented the grievances of Pilibhit lawyers against the district judge before the HC chief justice.
The lawyers have been boycotting legal work in the court of the district and sessions judge in protest over his alleged abusive language and unlawful judicial dealings. The matter had taken a serious turn on September 14 when the district judge and the lawyers had filed police complaints against each other and the police had lodged an FIR against eight named and 50 anonymous lawyers under various sections of Indian Penal Code.
A delegation of lawyers comprising the presidents of three local bar associations — the Civil Bar, Central Bar and Joint Bar Association — had met the high court’s AJ (administrative judge) in Allahabad on Monday and appealed for disciplinary action against district judge Kautilta Gaur.
Talking with TOI over the phone from Allahabad, chairman of the Bar Council of UP Anil Pratap Singh said he had met the chief justice on Monday and had appealed to him to order to probe into the dispute between Pilibhit lawyers and the district judge. He said he had represented the lawyers after receiving documents sent by Pilibhit lawyers regarding their grievances against the district judge.
Singh confirmed that the vigilance committee had reached Pilibhit to record the statements of the parties concerned.