Lawyers protest parking crunch at New Court Complex in Ludhiana

The members staged the protest to draw attention towards the acute shortage of parking spaces for advocates at the district court premises

Members of the district Bar association staged a day-long protest near New Court Complex by blocking the parking from 9 am to 5 pm here on Friday, prohibiting court staff and litigants from parking their vehicles.

District Bar association members staging a protest at advocates parking place near Court Complex in Ludhiana on Friday. (HT Photo)

The members staged the protest to draw attention towards the acute shortage of parking space for advocates at the district court premises.

Chetan Verma, the president of the district Bar association, expressed deep concern over the persisting issue of insufficient parking facilities adding that currently, there are only 800 chambers available for 5,000 advocates, leading to an overwhelming shortage of space.

The parking problem worsened because of recent incidents. On Thursday, someone damaged the car of advocate Anmol Girish, who supports the cause. The association strongly criticised this act. Verma emphasised that such incidents will not be tolerated and urged for quick measures to keep advocates, and their belongings safe, he added.

Furthermore, Verma highlighted another distressing incident that took place a day ago. Advocate AK Kalsi’s client suffered a fatal heart attack inside the court complex, prompting the advocate to rush the patient to the hospital.

Tragically, the blocked parking delayed their timely departure by approximately 10 minutes, which may have played a significant role in the unfortunate outcome.

Verma said such delays can have life-threatening consequences. In the afternoon, during the protest, advocates presented their long pending demands to session judge Munish Singal and commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu, and urged them to come out with a possible solution.