By IANS,
New Delhi: Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan Tuesday faced a mob of irate advocates denied easy access to the Supreme Court’s high security inner zone on the basis of their professional identity cards.
“CJI go back, CJI go back”, “We are lawyers, we can’t be treated like this,” were the slogans shouted by scores of lawyers against Balakrishnan as he inaugurated a new security system, which allowed entry only on the basis of a special electronic chip-embedded proximity card.
The new security system provides round-the-clock surveillance of the apex court inner zone through closed circuit television cameras.
Under the old security regime, any lawyer having the professional identity cards issued by respective bar councils or the associations all over India were allowed entry without any hitch, the lawyers said.
But the new security regime has invalidated all other cards, except those of the Supreme Court Bar Association, with the apex court bar members also entitled to get a proximity card for themselves or for their clerks, said agitated lawyers.
But other lawyers, associated with other bars, are now required to queue up before a separate reception window to secure an entry pass to the apex court inner premises, housing the courtrooms or the judges’ chambers, besides various branches of the court’s registry.
“Owing to this new security system, many lawyers ended up missing their appearances before various benches inside the court,” said apex court bar association president M.N. Krishnamani, who too disapproved of denying entry to lawyers from other bar associations.
The lawyers held a demonstration near the gate for over an hour to register their protest but dispersed after the CJI left the venue after inaugurating the new security system.