Judge slapped 45 civil judges resign in protest

FAISALABAD: Forty-five civil judges of district Faisalabad on Monday tendered their resignations in protest against manhandling of their colleague, Tariq Mehmood Kahot, allegedly by an advocate in the court.

The civil judges, in their resignations delivered to the Senior Civil Judge, made it clear that if the accused advocate, Liaquat Javaid, was not taken to task under the law on charges of disgracing, humiliating, manhandling and abusing in the presence of the court officials, litigants and other lawyers, they would not perform their duties from the next working day, Wednesday.

Civil Judge Tariq Mehmood Kahot reportedly took up a case in which the court bailiff had taken into custody an accused involved in a default case. Liaquat Javaid, counsel for the accused, asked the judge to release the accused as the default amount had already been deposited. The learned judge, after perusing the file and record of the case, observed that there was no such receipt of payment on the file and declared his inability to entertain the contention of the advocate.

On this, Liaquat Javaid Advocate flared up and started abusing the learned judge. He rushed to the dais of the court and allegedly slapped the judge repeatedly and beat him up severely. The court officials and some lawyers, after hectic efforts, succeeded in rescuing the judge, who went into his retiring room.

The news of the incident spread in the courts. The civil judges of tehsils Jaranwala, Samundri, Tandlianwala stopped the judicial work. They held an emergent meeting with Senior Civil Judge in the chair. They condemned the incident and termed it shameful and uncalled for act of lawyer, Liaquat Javaid.

They termed the incident an insult to the whole judiciary,saying the accused lawyer had set a bad precedent which should be taken seriously. The 45 civil judges of the district submitted their resignations to the senior civil judge and made it clear that they would not resume their duties on Wednesday if a case was not registered against the accused.

District and Sessions Judge Sohail Nasir, on receipt of the incident report, also held a meeting with the civil judges and assured that their dignity would be protected at all costs. He also told them that a report had been submitted to the chief justice of the Lahore High Court with full details of the incident and excesses of the accused lawyers.

He appealed to the civil judges that they should resume their normal judicial work and the offender would not be allowed to go Scot-free. In another development, the Executive Committee of the District Bar Association, in its emergent meeting held with President S M Iqbal in the chair, unanimously decided to suspend the membership of the accused advocate.

Owing to the incident, the working in the civil and other courts was halted and none of the judges heard the cases causing inconvenience to the litigants. -APPOur Correspondent adds: The DBA suspended the membership of Liaquat Javaid advocate and referred the case to the Punjab Bar Council Executive Committee chairman for further action.

All the 17 members of the DBA Executive Committee, including DBA Vice-President Safdar Ali Bukhari, Secretary Rana Ali Abbas and Joint Secretary Malik Wasim Mukhtar, attended the meeting. They also heard the viewpoint of the lawyer. The meeting also passed a resolution, pledging that discipline would be maintained on the court premises at every cost.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=27927