Supreme Court sends delegation to Patiala House for inspection

| Sreejiraj Eluvangal

The Supreme Court has appointed a five-member lawyer delegation to visit Patiala House today and submit a report on the happenings inside the court complex on the same day.

The move comes after the guidelines issued by the apex court failed to stop violent lawyers who again attacked Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the students union of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The lawyer delegation, which includes Kapil Sibal, are expected to report back to the court today itself.

The Supreme Court also put a temporary freeze on the trial of Kumar till the delegation submits its report.

Today’s violence is the second time in three days when the lawyers have attacked under trials, journalists and members of the public who came to witness the trial of Kumar.

According to eye witness reports, the lawyers also seized the phones of reporters and others present in the courtroom and deleted video and photographic evidence of the violence.

A huge delegation of journalists marched from the Delhi Press Club to the Supreme Court yesterday and filed a petition against the violence inflicted upon journalists trying to cover the trial of Kumar.

Today, the Supreme Court had imposed many conditions, including strict controls over the number of people to be allowed inside the court at the time of the trial. However, lawyers are reported to have violated the Supreme Court guidelines and tried to attack Kumar, who escaped without any big injury. However, there are reports of injury marks as well.

A journalist working for Firstpost.com was also thrashed by lawyers in the Patiala House court complex. ‘Nationalist’ lawyers also threw stones at media vehicles parked outside the court.

There were also a section of lawyers who opposed the ‘nationalist’ lawyers, and according to the Firstpost reporter, both of these groups fought with each other as well.