Barred from Justice

It's not an innocent coincidence and it's uncanny. A common trend among bar associations is gaining momentum in Uttar Pradesh - lawyers are being compelled not to take up cases of ‘terror suspects' - leaving the accused with no legal aid. This has become an organised and violent campaign. Consequently, no lawyer is ready to take up a case of a terror accused - even when there is neither any evidence nor chargesheet. Clearly, this is a gross violation of constitutional rights and has disturbed the legal community across the nation.

Two lawyers from Lucknow, Mohammed Shoaib and AM Faridi, defied the ban and came to the rescue of several of the accused who had been labeled ‘terrorists' by the Special Task Force (STF) and UP Police, often based on fabricated charges. For instance, Shoaib was instrumental in proving that Aftab Alam Ansari was innocent after the latter was labeled by the STF as a HUJI terrorist. However, their defiance didn't go down well with the bar associations and fellow lawyers in the state. They decided to teach the two a lesson. They were brutally assaulted, not once but several times, inside and outside the court premises.

The resolution that lawyers will not take up terror suspects' cases gained momentum when the Faizabad Bar Association set the trend after an attack on the makeshift temple in Ayodhya in 2005. Varanasi soon followed, after two blasts at the Sankatmochan temple in 2006. Serial blasts in Lucknow, Barabanki and Varanasi saw the Barabanki and Lucknow bar associations joining in. Since then, incidents of lawyers attacking fellow lawyers have become a recurrent phenomena.

On April 5, 2008, when Mohammed Shoaib went to submit the bail application for Mohammed Tariq and Mohammed Khalid Mujahid in Barabanki, a group of lawyers led by Pradeep Singh, secretary of the Barabanki Bar Association, forced him to withdraw the vakalatnama (registration of legal counsel). He withdrew his name from the case but later reconsidered after repeated requests from Tariq and Mujahid's families.

On August 12, 2008, in a sessions court in Lucknow, when Shoaib asked the judge that undertrials should not be handcuffed while present in court, the judge refused saying that it was a matter of national security. He was arguing on a case involving Naushad who works as a labourer in Alwar, Rajasthan. Later, on the same day, about 25 lawyers stormed into a courtroom in Lucknow shouting that Mohammed Shoaib was "appearing for the Pakistanis". They started abusing him and beating him up.

On the same day, lawyer AM Faridi was attacked in his cabin in Lucknow. "People in my adjoining chamber started shouting anti-Pakistan slogans. I thought there was a quarrel. As I came out to check, they called me a terrorist from Pakistan and started beating me. I tried to convince them that just like Aftab Ansari these boys are also innocent but they didn't budge," said Faridi.  On August 13, Shoaib was again attacked by the mob of same lawyers while they tried to burn Faridi's chamber in Lucknow. Several important files were burnt.

Speaking on telephone from Lucknow, Shoaib told Hardnews: "They said ‘Let us see who can save you here'. I was brutally beaten up, my clothes were ripped off and they paraded me in the court campus in my undergarments. Later, my junior, Rehan, tried to intervene and he was also beaten. These are not lawyers, these are criminals and most of them do property business and do not care either about law or the courts. Even the UP police is scared of them." Shoaib had to go to the trauma centre after the assault and lives in constant fear.