Shillong, Sept 1: Lawyers resorted to cease work demanding removal of Advocate General Amit Kumar, on Tuesday.
The protesting lawyers threw eggs on a banner of Kumar with “go back” written on it.
The indefinite boycott of courts will continue though they met the Chief Justice and the Law Minister Lahkmen Rymbui.
Shillong Bar Association Secretary TL Jyrwa said the agitation is being led jointly by the Shillong Bar Association and the High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association
He said the boycott call was taken on Monday after the first phase of protest on August 27 and after meeting the Governor on Saturday yielded no response from the Chief Minister or the Law department.
The associations on Tuesday first met the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court.
Jyrwa said the Chief Justice cautioned that abstention from court work is prohibited under Supreme Court rulings, but also assured coordination.
“The Chief Justice said that the decision we have taken to abstain from court work is something that should not be done because there are Supreme Court rulings that bar us… but we said we have no choice because even after proceeding like this, no one pays attention to our demands,” Jyrwa said.
“She said that from her side she will also try to coordinate or have talks between the Government and us. She said go and reconsider this decision and come back around 2 o’clock and resume work,” he added.
Later, the delegation met Law Minister Lahkmen Rymbui at noon.
Jyrwa termed the meeting not fruitful.
“We understand that the talks with the Law Minister were not satisfactory because it did not lead anywhere,” he said
The minister was not aware of the detailed presentation submitted to the Chief Minister and only knew about the boycott resolution, he said.
“The minister said for those appointments that come from the Law department, he can look into it himself but the demand to remove Amit Kumar has to be decided by the cabinet,” Jyrwa said.
Jyrwa said no timeframe was given for examining the appointments nor any assurance on removal of the AG.
“After we came out of the meeting, we felt that we have to proceed as decided yesterday not to appear in courts,” he said
He added that the boycott will continue and the steering committee will review the situation on September 3.
Jyrwa said, “Our demand is because Amit Kumar has misused his office by appointing his own people in those cases that are in Meghalaya.
He alleged wasteful expenditure of public funds by engaging outsiders.
He said the agitation began after the AG allegedly disrespected the bar associations by commenting that they are not safe for women, and later more irregularities were found.
Regarding the Chief Minister’s silence, Jyrwa said, “It seems the Chief Minister wants to handle this matter alone… The silence of the Chief Minister on our demand… what we feel is that it is something that is not clean.”
The associations said they are still awaiting talks with the chief minister.
