Rajasthan lawyers call for bandh on Friday

Jaipur: Protesting lawyers in Rajasthan are intensifying their agitation. They've been on strike for over 2 weeks now and are now calling for a bandh on Friday to demand scrapping of the judge recruitment drive in the High Court. They are also demanding that impeachment proceedings be initiated against Chief Justice Bhalla and a CBI probe to the matter.

The Chief Justice is facing allegations that only 37 candidates were short-listed to be interviewed for 36 seats and among them only 13 were from Rajasthan.

Not just that, the allegations include that the Justice Bhalla took money to select these candidates.

They are demanding to scrap the judge recruitment drive in the High Court and impeachment of Chief Justice Bhalla.

Meanwhile, even as the lawyers threatened to intensify their protest, Chief Justice Bhalla is facing corruption charges in the ADJ recruitment process administering oath to Justice Mishra.

Justice Bhalla administered the oath on Sunday evening a day before it was scheduled. The lawyers have now called for a Rajasthan bandh on September 17.

Omkar Singh Lakhawat, a lawyer in Jaipur, voicing the plea of the protesting lawyers, questioned, “How could only 37 candidates be selected to be interviewed for 36 posts?”

He also asked why was the ADJ recruitment pending for seven years conducted after framing rules in a hurry, just months before the retirement of the Chief Justice scheduled in October and in order to accommodate candidates from other states, why was the paper on Rajasthani culture/dialects not conducted.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)