An agitating pro-Telangana advocate on Thursday created a flutter in the state High Court by pouring threatening to immolate himself in support of the demands of 42 per cent reservation in judiciary posts for Telanganaites.
Advocate GV Gupta’s act of climbing the main gate and then sprinkling petrol over himself before other lawyers stopped him, led to tension in the High Court.
The act seemingly galvanised the protesting lawyers into more slogan shouting against the government’s ‘indifferent’ attitude to find a solution to the four-day old boycott of work.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bandaru Dattatreya, who was on a visit to the Court to express his solidarity with the lawyers at the time of the incident, said that the government would be blamed if the situation gets out of hand as the protests are growing more stringent.
Earlier, the agitating lawyers, as part of their protest, stormed the Chamber of Justice C V Nagarjuna Reddy and damaged chairs, books and the podium.
Protesting against the government indifferent attitude, the lawyers demanded Justice C V Nagarjuna Reddy to boycott duties and extend moral support to their agitation.
The protesting lawyers raising ‘Jai Telangana’ slogans, attempted to break the locks of High Court gates. However, the police foiled their plans and took them into custody. Following the incident, tension mounted on the High Court premises and additional police forces have been deployed to prevent untoward incidents.
The protesting lawyers also sought resignation of Advocate general D V Seetharama Murthy.
Justice T Meena Kumari tried to bring some order to the situation by making frantic appeals to the protesting lawyers not to damage property and make their demands in a peaceful manner.
Traffic on the road was disrupted due to prevailing tension at the court.
The lawyers warned the government that they will not withdraw their agitation until it did not give written assurance on the quota issue.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Joint Action committee has called lawyers in Telangana region to boycott courts until the government makes its stand clear on quota issue.
The JAC also extended solidarity to the three advocates—S Satyam Reddy, G Jyothikiran and Vijay Kumar Goud, who are on fast since Monday near the Advocate General’s office.
The government said a three-member Cabinet Sub-Committee with Ministers Geetha Reddy, M Venkatramana and P Ramachandra Reddy is looking into the protesting lawyer’s demands