Deputy Chief minister appeals to Jammu bar to call off 38 day strike

Srinagar, Aug 4: Rejecting the suggestion of some members and Jammu Bar Association (JBA) that the government should intervene and get the sex racket case transferred outside the valley court, Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said JBA should adopt legal means for pressing their demands.

Appealing to JBA to call off the strike which has affected the people, Mr Baig said the Supreme Court has said that lawyers cannot go on strike.

It is a very sensitive issue and any move by the government to get the case transferred to outside the valley courts will send a wrong signal among the people in the Kashmir, he told the Legislative Assembly during zero hour in reply to a question by Panther Party member Haresh Dev Singh.

Mr Singh said that JBA is on strike for about past about 40 days with the results people of the entire Jammu region are suffering.

He said JBA association wanted that government should intervene and get the cases transferred to outside the valley courts.

Rejecting it, Mr Baig said the JBA can adopt legal means available in the constitution and under CrPC.

He said the accused can also move an application under section 103 of the Jammu and Kashmir constitution read with Article 216 of the Indian constitution so that he or she is properly heard.

Mr Baig, who is law and parliamentary affairs minister said the strike was illegal as per the Supreme Court order.

He said the JBA has raised a valued question that every citizen has a right to defend himself or herself in the court of law.

But,he said that no lawyer is ready to defend the sex racket accused following directions from the Kashmir Bar Association (KBA).

The decision of KBA is wrong, Mr Baig said adding when some lawyers from Jammu came to defend the accused but they were threatened and one of them was reportedly threatened with a pistol. The activists of the Dukhatarne-e-Milat also threatened the lawyers who were ready to defend the accused in the Kashmir court. He said the JBA can give an application in the high court or in the Supreme Court for transfer of the sex case to other courts.

One such application is being heard by the Division bench here, he said and added if government will intervene on its own the people will accuse that case was transferred when all the evidence was available in the vally.

Earlier, Ali Mohammad Sagar of the opposition National Conference said it is not befitting on the part of the legislature to discuss an issue which is subjudice and has rightly been handed over to CBI by the government.

The law must take its course and the CBI and court should do its duty.

He said the government should not intervene since some politicians are accused in the case.

The CBI has arrested two former minister Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Raman Mattoo, an IAS officer Mohammad Iqbal Khanday, former additional advocate general Anil Sethi, A BSF DIG and two police officers and several others, including kingpin in the sex racket.

UNI