Lawyers of Oudh Bar Association (OBA) of Lucknow high court and Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HBCA) of Allahabad high court will boycott work on Monday in protest against cane charge on October 29 against lawyers in the Ghaziabad district court.

In an emergency meeting called on Sunday, the OBA decided to support the state-level boycott call made by the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh. “We will boycott court proceedings on November 4 in protest against the cane charges against advocates in Ghaziabad,” OBA general secretary Manoj Kumar Dwivedi said.

The OBA has also demanded action against the police officers who carried out the cane charge. Lawyers at the Allahabad high court will also refrain from work. Meanwhile, officials of various bar associations across the state were present at another meeting convened by the Central Bar Association and Lucknow Bar Association of the district court on Sunday.

“A delegation of the Joint Bar Association will go to Ghaziabad to investigate the incident,” said Amresh Pal Singh, general secretary of the Central Bar Association. The bar bodies have constituted the Joint Bar Association, a body comprising members of Bar Associations across the state, to investigate the Ghaziabad incident.

The Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh called for a state-wide protest and labor boycott on Monday to express its resentment over the baton charges against advocates at the Ghaziabad court campus.

The Bar Council has also constituted a five-member committee to investigate the incident and submit its report. The incident took place on October 29 in the Ghaziabad district magistrate’s courtroom during the hearing of a bail-related case.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court Bar Council has demanded immediate suspension of the Ghaziabad district judge and also the concerned police officers. Furthermore, in a meeting held on Sunday afternoon he also demanded compensation for the injured lawyers. Bar Association president Anil Tiwari presided over the meeting led by HCBA secretary Vikrant Pandey.

In the meeting, it was also decided that a criminal contempt petition will be filed on behalf of HCBA against district judge Anil Kumar-X in this regard. Lawyers and baton-wielding police clashed in the Ghaziabad courtroom last Tuesday after the district judge called for force to remove protesting lawyers who raised slogans against them following a disagreement.

Some of the lawyers alleged that they suffered injuries when police personnel beat them with batons, even as police officers alleged that the agitating defenders set fire to a police post.