KARIMNAGAR: The Karimnagar Bar Association today decided to suspend four member-advocates for one year for allegedly raising slogans against retired High Court Chief Justice L Narasimha Reddy during a seminar here.
The conduct by the advocates was "unfortunate" and it tantamount to "insulting" not only Reddy, who retired as Chief Justice of Patna High Court, but also the judicial system, Association President Korivi Venugopal said here.
He said the Association unanimously took a decision to suspend its members Budida Mallesh, Kattekola Laxman, Janagama Narsing and Nishani Ramachandram, who allegedly made objectionable comments about Reddy during the seminar at the District Court premises here yesterday.
Reddy, who was delivering a lecture on B R Ambedkar, cut short his speech and left the venue midway after a group of lawyers raised slogans against him.
The lawyers were objecting to his presence at the event in light of a 2014 verdict delivered by a Division Bench of Andhra Pradesh HC headed by him in a case related to killing of Dalits.
They said Reddy had no right to speak on Ambedkar as he had acquitted accused in the Chundur Dalits murder case.
"The incident was unfortunate and we will see such things don't recur in future," Venugopal said, adding the Association will take all necessary steps to initiate disciplinary proceedings against them.
The advocates questioned a judgement given by Reddy and this amounts to contempt of court, he said, terming their conduct as "objectionable and unethical".
As many as eight Dalits were murdered at Chundur village in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh in August 1991. A Special Court, in August 2007, acquitted 123 out of the 179 accused named in the case. It sentenced 21 accused to life imprisonment and awarded one-year rigorous jail term to the 35 others.
Later, the convicts appealed the HC, following which a Bench, headed by Reddy and comprising Justice M S K Jaiswal, acquitted all of them.