With three prominent lawyers outfits going on strike on Tuesday, six valuable days of the total of 210 working days of the High Court, have gone waste.
Madras High Court Advocates Association, TN Advocates Association and Women Lawyers Association struck work on Tuesday.
The first boycott of courts this year was on February 19, the third anniversary of the advocates-police clash that happened three years ago.
After that, the advocates struck work for three days consecutively demanding CBI probe into the mysterious death of Sathish Kumar (23), son of advocate R Sankara Subbu.
The fourth boycott was on June 10 last, to register their protest against DGP K Ramanujam, for his alleged unruly behaviour against advocates who went to meet him on June 6 to lodge a complaint against the Kanniyakumari police personnel.
Tuesday’s boycott was not total. The first bench of Acting Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathiyanarayanan worked as usual. The courts of Justices K K Sasidharan and D Hariparanthaman and the court dealing with bails and anticipatory bails also worked. The advocates appeared before the judges without wearing their gowns.
It may be recalled that a public interest writ petition was filed seeking to abolish the centuries-old practice of declaring summer vacation for a little over a month from May 1 every year.
The judges and the Chief Justices of the Madras High Court have been urging the advocates not to resort to boycott of courts. Committees have been constituted to resolve the disputes between the advocates and the police on earlier occasions. However, it appears that they remain only on paper.