Bhopal: The District Bar Association here Wednesday resolved to take action against members who violate its directive not to plead the cases of terrorists and Maoists in courts.

The association Monday took a pledge not to defend alleged terrorists and Maoists charged with working against the country.

The decision was pending since the arrests of SIMI (Students' Islamic Movement of India) activists in the state.

"The demand that Naxalites and terrorists against whom there were incontrovertible evidences be denied the right to defend themselves in court had grown louder after the recent bomb blasts in Karnataka and Ahmedabad," said Rajesh Vyas, Bhopal Bar Association president.

"Though we strongly feel that those behind these incidents have no right to seek a legal defence since innocents were being killed, the blasts in Delhi - in which a police inspector was killed - was the last straw and we decided to take pledge in this regard," he added.

Vyas said fellow associations in Jabalpur (the seat of the high court), Indore and Gwalior may also soon follow suit.

Earlier, the Bar Association of Dhar, a town near Indore, in April 2008 declared that no local lawyers can defend those accused of terrorist acts.

Then advocate Noor Mohammad of Ujjain travelled to Dhar to defend an accused in a terrorism case and he was assaulted by a group of lawyers.

 

Source : ians