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Journalism of Courage
Even as the Manipur Speaker sought legal opinion on the standoff between the executive and the judiciary, lawyers and judges of the Imphal Bench of the Gauhati High Court struck work today against the Assembly order summoning two judges who had issued show-cause notices to CM Ibobi Singh.
While the Manipur Judicial Officers’ Association has announced cease-work today and tomorrow, the state Bar Association has declared an indefinite strike demanding withdrawal of Assembly summons to Justices B.B. Deb and N. Surjamani Singh.
The Judicial Officers’ Association cited a 1965 Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a UP Assembly summons to an Allahabad High Court judge. The Association also reminded there were ample legal remedies if anyone had any grievance against any officer.
The Manipur Bar Association too cited the same ruling and said there was no scope for an Assembly to pull up a judge if he was discharging his duties as a judicial officer.
Condemning the House privilege committee’s resolution asking the two judges to appear, the Bar Association demanded that resolution be withdrawn at the earliest. The Association also called for restoration of rule of law.
The Gauhati HC here as well as the other outlying benches except in Imphal and Tripura, however, functioned normally. In Imphal, the courts wore a deserted look, with no lawyer turning up.
In Tripura too, lawyers abstained from work in response to a call by the Agartala High Court Bar Association, to protest withdrawal of security to the Imphal bench.
Judges B.B. Deb and N. Surjamani Singh are still in Guwahati. Speaker T.N. Haokip said the issue would be solved ‘‘amicably’’. The Manipur Advocate General, who has been despatched to Guwahati today, refused to comment on the issue. Haokip was also trying to obtain the views of Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi.
Meanwhile, all relevant papers of the contempt case, for which Ibobi had been summoned, have been transferred to the principal bench of the court at Guwahati.
