Advocates divided over SC rap of government

HYDERABAD: There is a difference of opinion among the advocates here on the Supreme Court’s criticism of the Andhra Pradesh government for failure to rein in the Telangana agitators who indulged in “sheer goondaism and vandalism” on the High Court premises during their September 2010 stir for a separate state. Justifying the apex court’s comments as 100 percent correct, advocate B Chandrasekhar said the state government had failed in preventing the violence on the High Court premises. As the police failed to act immediately the agitators took undue advantage of the situation, he said.On the other hand, advocate S Ravindar said that ‘wrong information’ was provided to the Supreme Court with regard to Telangana movement.  It is very unfortunate that the apex court had termed the Telangana advocates’ ‘movement’ as goondaism. As part of the Telangana stir, the High Court advocates had given a bandh call and accordingly requested the judges to abstain from work. However, one of the judge went ahead with the court proceedings during the bandh call. Minor violent incidents might have happened but they cannot be treated as an act of goondaism.There is a need for the SC to look into the acts of human rights violations by the state to suppress the movement. The apex court cannot neglect ‘state goondaism’, he remarked.