Ghaziabad district courts shut due to lawyers’ stir; litigants find themselves running around in circles

Protesting lawyers demand judge removal, causing court closure, hindering litigants' access to justice in Uttar Pradesh.

More than 350 lawyers from Uttar Pradesh held a mahapanchayat outside the Ghaziabad district and sessions court complex in Raj Nagar on Saturday against the lathi-charge by the police last month.

The protesting lawyers from Gorakhpur, Mirzapur, Ballia, Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Bareilly, Bijnor, and Gautam Buddh Nagar, among other districts, said they were concerned about their safety and security and demanded the removal of the district court judge in whose courtroom they were charged with batons on October 29.

The violence unfolded around 11 a.m. that day when the judge called in the force to remove a group of protesting advocates raising slogans against him over a disagreement regarding an anticipatory bail case. Some of the lawyers claimed they suffered injuries as the police personnel used batons on them while police officers alleged that the agitating advocates had set the area outpost on fire.

Due to the strike called by the lawyers, the court complex has been shut since October 29, causing inconvenience to litigants from various socio-economic backgrounds.

A 43-year-old man had come from Loni with his 15-year-old daughter, who had filed a sexual harassment case against a man in 2021.

“It is difficult for my daughter to take leaves from school to attend the court hearings. This time, we managed somehow. But now, upon reaching the court, we have been told that it is shut. No one knows when it’ll open. We haven’t even been given a date. The lawyers just informed us about the protest,” said the man. He added, “It is difficult for daily wage workers like us to secure justice.”

Bir Pal Mathur, a 61-year-old daily wage worker, whose sister-in-law was murdered in Ghaziabad’s Ashok Vatika in 2018, said he had been asked to visit a court here on November 13. He came all the way, only to find the empty courtrooms. “I have now been asked to come later. I’m old, and it’s getting difficult to travel. The case has been going on for so long. We don’t know how and when it’ll end,” he said.