District court lawyers to abstain from work today over assault conviction of former DHCBA chief

New Delhi: Twenty-seven years after a woman lawyer and retired District and Sessions Judge was assaulted in Delhi, a local court here convicted the former Delhi High Court Bar Association Rajiv Khosla in the case, holding that the victim's testimony was "absolutely truthful and creditworthy."

But days after the conviction was made public, the Coordination Committee of the All District Court Bar Associations of Delhi on Monday passed a resolution to abstain from work in all district courts today in protest against the conviction of Khosla.

The resolution passed by the Committee called the judgment convicting Khosla "impartial, biased and against all the cardinal principles of criminal jurisprudence in the matter".

Significantly, the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gajender Singh Nagar held that testimony of the victim, Sujata Kohli, about being pulled by the hair and arms by Khosla and being threatened to not be allowed to practice from Tis Hazari Court.

The Coordination Committee has now said that it has decided to meet with the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court regarding the conviction and added that if the meeting did not lead to a resolution, they would indefinitely boycott the court of CMM

Nagar.

The case was from 1994, when Kohli was a practising lawyer. She said that she was asked to attend a seminar by Khosla and upon refusing, she was threatened by him and assaulted by him.