Capital anarchy

Capital anarchy

Law and order suffers as Delhi’s police and lawyers duke it out.

In a shocking breakdown of the law and order machinery in Delhi, police and lawyers have been at loggerheads since last Saturday when clashes took place between the two sides at the Tis Hazari Court complex over a parking dispute. At least 20 policemen and eight lawyers were injured and 20 vehicles were vandalised. Plus, lawyers accused the police of firing shots and injuring their colleagues. This saw the Delhi high court order suspension and transfer of police officers. But lawyers took to protests again on Monday, with video emerging of their thrashing bystanders and policemen at various spots. Yesterday, it was police’s turn to protest as thousands of them blocked one of the busiest roads in the city.

When two pillars of the law and order machinery go at each other in this fashion, that too in the heart of the national capital, it highlights fundamental infirmities in administration. Police and lawyers have an interdependent relationship, and justice can only be served when each group performs its defined function. But instead of upholding the rule of law if either tries to become a law unto itself, there is bound to be a collapse of order in society.

Therefore, neither can police freely manhandle lawyers – or anyone for that matter – nor can lawyers behave like goons and go around beating policemen and bystanders. Amidst anarchic protests by either group, it is the common man who suffers. Sometimes police too are guilty of looking the other way – lawyers were treated with kid gloves when they went on a rampage at the Patiala House Court in 2016. Unfortunately, today’s populist politics has successfully propagated the idea that one’s ‘hurt sentiments’ are above law and due process. If that’s a recipe for anarchy, we see the outcome on the national capital’s streets today as two prime upholders of the law abuse the law.