The indefinite strike of advocates is giving a tough time to the litigants. In a bid to provide some relief to them, the Kanpur judiciary has started granting bail to them on personal bonds with certain conditions.
The district judge Kanpur Nagar, A K Srivastava visited Kanpur jail on Friday and granted bail to as many as 14 out of 54 undertrials after a hearing.
According to jail superintendent, R N Pandey, 54 undertrials had moved their bail applications in Kanpur Nagar court. Since advocates were on strike, the district judge Kanpur Nagar; district government counsel, criminal; and additional chief metropolitan magistrate I Kanpur Nagar, Ashok Kumar, along with their staff, arrived at Kanpur jail in the afternoon session. The presiding officer summoned all the 54 undertrials and asked them if they wanted to argue their case themselves he would hear and decide them and if they wanted that they should be represented by their advocates then a fresh date should be fixed. As many as 14 undertrials argued their cases themselves, while remaining got the next dates as April 20 and 25 for hearing.
The jail superintendent said that all the 14 undertrials had been asked to furnish personal bond of an amount ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 and furnish two sureties of like amount later. As soon as they furnish their personal bond, jail authorities would release them, he added.
Meanwhile, advocates continued their strike on Friday too. The office-bearers of two associations sat on relay fast at Kanpur Bar Association Hall and later the 51 members of the newly constituted Sangharsh Samiti convened a meeting to discuss the situation and chalk out a strategy for their agitation, according to Indrapal Singh Bhadoria, president, KBA. It has been decided to send representation to the Chief Justice of India, Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court and to the chief minister.
The Samiti would make a demand that the name of officials of judicial probe be announced so that proceedings could take place at the earliest, Bhadoria added. He also raised a question on the viability of a magisterial probe when a judicial probe had already been announced. BJP leader Ashok Gehlot would visit Kanpur Bar Association to meet the victims of police atrocities and extend his party's support to their agitation, he added.
