Bengaluru: Condemning police action against their colleagues and students during anti-SIR protests in Delhi and Bengaluru in the past four days, dozens of lawyers Tuesday demanded apology from the Union govt for unlawful detentions, while welcoming Karnataka chief minister’s order to probe the Bengaluru incident.Unlike the chaos on Monday when protesting lawyers were manhandled allegedly near KR Circle, Tuesday’s demonstrations by Indian Association of Lawyers and All Indian Lawyers Association for Justice in front of the city civil court remained peaceful. Despite protesting outside the designated site of Freedom Park, police officers did not attempt to detain or remove the peaceful protesters.‘Batons cannot silence the constitution’ and ‘dissent is not a crime’ were some of the placards on display during protest.On the CM’s probe order, Clifton D’Rozario, AILAJ’s general secretary, said, “This is the difference between a party that believes in democracy and others who don’t. The state govt immediately said they’ll look into it. I’m sure they’ll take action.”Clifton was among the advocates allegedly manhandled by police Monday. “Police are always in favour of the ruling class,” he added.The lawyers sought resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged discrepancies in the special intensive revision process.“Today’s protest by lawyers in Bengaluru is due to several issues: SIR, manhandling of lawyers, and we’re looking for the rule of the law. When we are supposed to uphold the rule of law, we are treated like this,” said Shilpa Prasad, a lawyer.Avani Choksi, an advocate focused on labour law, said the protest was planned well before Monday chaos with a larger focus on Delhi. They hinted at more protests if the Union govt does not act early.
