Delhi Bar Associations To Abstain From Work Over Judgment Convicting Rajiv Khosla

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In response to the recent judgement convicting former Delhi High Court Bar Association President Rajiv Khosla for assaulting a woman lawyer Sujata Kohli in the year 1994, the Coordination Committee of All District Court Bar Associations of Delhi unanimously resolved to go on complete work abstinence tomorrow in the district courts.

DETAILS

• According to the resolution, if the situation is not resolved following the meeting with the Chief Justice, the committee will engage in a "full indefinite boycott of the court of the concerned judicial officer."
• This happened after Tis Hazari Court’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gajender Singh Nagar recently found Khosla guilty in the case.
• The Court found Kohli's testimony about her allegation that Khosla grabbed her hair and arm and threatened her with not being permitted to practise law from Tis Hazari Court to be "completely true and creditworthy."
• Sujata Kohli, a former practising lawyer, rose through the ranks of the Delhi judiciary to become a District and Sessions Judge before retiring last year.
• The claims against Khosla were that in July 1994, when he was the Secretary of the Delhi Bar Association, he urged Kohli to attend a seminar and warned her that if she refused, all of the Bar Association's benefits would be taken away and she would lose her seat.
• Her table and chair were removed from their location despite her filing a legal suit seeking an adequate injunction.
• Rajiv Khosla, along with co-accused lawyers, came with a crowd of 40-50 lawyers, she claimed in her complaint, when she was seated on a bench near her seat, waiting for the visit of the Civil judge.
• They all approached her, according to the complainant, and Khosla moved forward and grabbed her hair, twisted her arms, dragged her by her hair, screamed filthy insults, and threatened her.
• While the police filed the FIR in August 1994, the complainant filed a complaint in March 1995 after being completely unhappy with the investigation.
• The Court was of the opinion that yanking someone's hair and arm would cause bodily pain, and thus an offence under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) IPC was established because the complainant was subjected to bodily pain.

QUESTIONS

• Do you think the delhi bar association is right in abstaining from work over a judgement convicting Rajiv Khosla?
• Do you think Rajiv Khosla was correctly convicted?

Share your views in the comments section below.