Chennai: In July this year, when more than 2,000 lawyers from all over Tamil Nadu converged in Chennai and took out a rally, protesting the new set of disciplinary rules framed by the Madras high court as per the Supreme Court verdict, one thing was clear, at least a section of ‘men in black’ were not comfortable in following rules.
In May, the Madras high court notified rules that empowered the court to debar lawyers who were using judges’ names to collect money besides attending court proceedings drunk. Lawyers should not tamper with court records and should not browbeat or abuse, judges, the notification said. The notification indicated that lawyers were doing all these in the court.
But police, note that a section of advocates had been doing more than that. Lawyers commit murders, finance killings, hold kangaroo court, ransacked police stations and threatened clients. Police note that most of the time lawyers behave as if they are a law unto themselves.
Police recall that the Egmore Bar Association elections results of 2015 had led to the murder of lawyer Stalin, in the court complex. While the rival groups argued over results, Stalin, a member of the group which lost, was stoned, then beaten black and blue. He was executed medieval-era style.
“That was just one of the many violent incidents involving lawyers in the city,” an officer noted. In a sensational murder case of a doctor in September 2013, police to their shock found that it was a lawyer who brokered a mercenary gang, that attacked Dr Subbiah in front of a hospital in Abhiramapuram in Chennai.
Most of the people in Chennai and the world over, who had seen the live coverage on TV channels, may still remember what happened in the notorious clash between police and lawyers in the high court campus in February 2009.
“There are lawyers who file bail applications for accused without consent from the arrested and then extract money from the lawyer representing the client to withdraw the bail petition” a senior police officer noted.
