CHENNAI: Coming down heavily on members of the Bar for the second time in a matter of days, the Madras High Court on Friday said police are free to take action against a group of lawyers who had allegedly threatened civic officials and stopped them from sealing an illegal building in George Town in North Chennai.
“We find it difficult to believe that qualified lawyers would lend their shoulders to such illegality. It has not been possible to verify whether they were advocates or any other elements of society masquerading as lawyers,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam observed and directed the owner of the illegal building, who had brought the lawyers to prevent officials from evicting him, to appear before them on July 23. The bench was hearing a PIL by activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy seeking action against civic authorities who failed to comply with court’s orders on unauthorised buildings.