Allahabad High Court Seeks Contempt Action and FIRs Against Lawyers Over Courtroom Violence

The Allahabad High Court has recommended criminal contempt proceedings against a group of lawyers accused of assaulting government counsel, court staff and security personnel and of vandalizing Court No. 49 on October 28, and has asked the Chief Justice to order police cases against those involved. The order, passed on October 29 by a division bench of Justices Ajay Bhanot and Divesh Chandra Samant, was made public on November 2.

According to the order, the trouble began on the morning of October 28 when a group of lawyers gathered in the courtroom, shouted slogans and forced the bench to rise. Senior advocate V.P. Srivastava told the court that a letter issued a day earlier by newly elected office bearers of the High Court Bar Association, which claimed he had been humiliated, was false. The bench said that after the judges returned to their chambers, Additional Government Advocate Paritosh Kumar Malviya came to them injured and said he had been beaten inside the courtroom over his appearance for the state.

What the bench found

The 29-page order records that other additional government advocates, bench secretaries, court staff and a peon were also assaulted, that furniture was destroyed and that the courtroom was ransacked. The bench said the removal of chairs before 10 am pointed to a pre-planned incident. It rejected the bar association's account that a lawyer had been ordered jailed or forced to apologize to a police officer, stating that no such order was dictated or exists on the record. The court described the allegations as a false narrative spread to bring the High Court into disrepute.

The bench said the conduct of the lawyers prima facie scandalized and lowered the authority of the court, interfered with judicial proceedings and obstructed the administration of justice. It recommended that the Registrar General be directed to register a first information report against the lawyers for inciting violence, conspiring to commit violence, committing violence and vandalism in court, and for preventing public officials from discharging their duties. The bench also sought a separate case against people who posted false accounts of the incident online, and asked that such posts be blocked and deleted.

Why it matters for legal careers

The dispute goes to the core of how lawyers conduct themselves and what courts will tolerate from the bar. The bench said the obligation of lawyers to speak truth to power does not give them a license to incite violence or disaffection against the institution, and that anarchy is not a form of dissent. It added that appeasing violence in court would make the courts vulnerable to blackmail. For advocates and law students, the outcome will shape expectations around courtroom behavior, social media commentary on pending matters and compliance with professional rules.

The practical consequences are already visible. Government lawyers who appear for the state in criminal and civil matters have said the assault targeted them for doing their jobs, and court staff, who are not lawyers, were caught in the violence. The recommendation for police cases and contempt hearings means several lawyers could face criminal prosecution and disciplinary exposure at the same time. The bar association, which had written to the Chief Justice a day before the order, has objected to the bench's account, so the matter now sits with the Chief Justice, who must decide whether to send it to an appropriate bench for prosecution.

What to watch next

The next step rests with the Chief Justice, who has been asked to transmit the reference for contempt action and to direct the Registrar General on the police cases. How quickly the first information reports are filed, whether the social media posts are removed, and whether the bar association formally responds to the bench's findings will indicate how far the matter goes. The case also adds to a wider debate in India over courtroom conduct, after several recent orders on lawyer advertising, practice rules and legal aid, with courts signaling tighter standards for the profession in the area of legal compliance and professional discipline.