Lucknow:
Judicial work across Uttar Pradesh was crippled on Tuesday as lawyers struck work for a day on a call by the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council to protest a series of attacks on lawyers.
The strike was provoked, particularly, by recent attack on senior Allahabad High Court lawyer Krishna Raj Sirohi, the assault on lawyers in Tiloi and police highhandedness against lawyers in Varanasi, Jaunpur, Banda, Sitapur, Meerut, Lakhimpur Kheri, Kushinagar and Gorakhpur.
Work came to a grinding halt in all district courts as well as the Allahabad High Court and the Lucknow bench of the high court. Ram Prakash Gupta, member of the bar council, told IANS that only recently, lawyers were caned by policemen in Pratapgarh. Two lawyers were kidnapped in Sitapur and goons bashed up a senior lawyer of the Allahabad High Court.
Accusing the government of failing to protect lawyers, bar council members said they would be holding a meeting in Allahabad on Tuesday evening to decide on the future course of action.