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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court has taken action against ten more advocates from the Prayagraj district court, issuing criminal contempt of court notices against them. This move comes in response to accusations of the advocates assaulting litigants.

On April 30, the high court had issued criminal contempt notices to Advocates Ran Vijay Singh and Mohd. Asif and restrained them from practice in Uttar Pradesh.

The high court has now imposed a ban on the entry of ten more advocates into the district court premises. These lawyers are:

1. Adv. Syeed Aftab Ahmad

2. Adv. Mahtab Ahmad

3. Adv. Sanjeev Singh

4. Adv. Ritesh Srivastava

5. Adv. Ravi Sonkar

6. Adv. Adarsh Shukla

7. Adv. Vikas Singh

8. Adv. Rishabh Singh

9. Adv. Satyavan Singh

10. Adv. Adarsh @ Anshu

The names of these advocates were mentioned in the report sent by the District Judge, Prayagraj after examining the CCTV footage in incident of assault on litigants in the premises of the court itself.

The bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Mohd Azhar Husain Idrisi noted the gravity of the situation, emphasizing the need for serious consideration of the incident.

The bench emphasized the need for a clear and unambiguous message to be sent to those engaging in such behavior, stating that incidents of this nature will not be tolerated and will be met with severe consequences.

“This type of aggressive and violent conduct in the court will cause a virtual collapse of the system. This Court cannot be a silent spectator to events of this kind. A clear and unequivocal message must go to unscrupulous persons that incident of this kind would not be tolerated and shall be dealt with sternly,” the bench said.

Additionally, the bench called upon the Commissioner of Police, Prayagraj to ensure that adequate police force is made available on the direction of District Judge, Prayagraj to allow smooth functioning of the court.

The Commissioner of Police, Prayagraj will authorize a responsible officer, not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Prayagraj, to specify the criminal history of all the persons against whom notices are issued in the present contempt matter. The status of investigation or the action taken in that regard shall also be specifically disclosed, it ordered.

The matter will be next taken up on May 27, 2024.

Background:

The high court had received a reference from the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Prayagraj stating that while proceedings in a matter were going on, a group of lawyers entered the court and started pressurizing the presiding officer to take up another matter in which the plaintiff himself was a lawyer.

The allegations against Advocates Ran Vijay Singh and Mohd. Asif were that they had brought the crowd inside the courtroom.

The presiding officer was pressurized to take up the case immediately and the litigants of the aforesaid matter were physically assaulted inside the court. The presiding officer was also ill-treated.

The presiding officer, in her order, mentioned that the President of the Bar tried to resolve the issue but Advocates Ran Vijay Singh and Mohd. Asif did not even listen to the President and the President thereafter had to leave the court to save himself.

The crowd which had come in support of unscrupulous lawyers came on the dias and physically assaulted Monis Parvez Ansari and his wife. When these litigants tried to enter the chamber in order to save themselves the crowd brought by the aforesaid two advocates entered the chamber of the Presiding Officer and physically assaulted the litigants.

Moreover, the presiding officer had to rush to the chamber of the Chief Judicial Magistrate to save herself. The police arrived much later.

Case Title: In Re v. Ranvijay Singh And Others