New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum has now shot off a protest letter to the High Court Bar Association president, against the strike called by the Co-ordination Committee of the All Districts Bar Associations of Delhi over the assault conviction of Rajeev Khosla, a former Delhi High Court Bar Association president himself.
At the outset we applaud the courage of Sujata Kohli to have faith in the rule of law and to take recourse to law against violence at the workplace. "We also applaud the trial court for its courage to give an independent decision without being intimidated by the might and power of the accused person," the letter said.
The Forum has also taken issue with the decision to form a committee to look at the conviction judgment and scrutinize it followed by a submission of a report. It said that this was "intimidation of the trial court" that passed the order.
In the letter, the Forum takes the opportunity to highlight how women in the legal profession have faced oppression, sexual harassment and patriarchy within the community and that the strike called by the Coordination Committee shows the "misogyny of the bar". The Forum goes on to say that the strike shows the appalling conditions under which women lawyers work in
courts.
Khosla, a former president of the Delhi High Court Bar Association was recently convicted for assaulting Sujata Kohli, a lawyer and retired District and Sessions Judge, 27 years after the incident in
1994.
The court convicting Khosla had ruled that Kohli's testimony was solid and that the detail with which she described the assault gave her testimony credibility. Following this, the Coordination Committee of the All Delhi District Court Bar Association called for a strike - arguing the conviction was not correct in law.