Alleged killing of lawyer & judge attack on justice dispensation system, says HC

The Jharkhand HC on Thursday said the alleged murders of an advocate in Ranchi and an additional district judge in Dhanbad are a direct attack on the “justice dispensation system”, reports Chandrajit Mukherjee. While advocate Manoj Jha was shot dead by unidentified people in Tamar on Monday, a murder case was lodged by the Jharkhand police on Thursday in the case of the death of an additional district judge in Dhanbad Uttam Anand.
On Thursday, a division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad heard the matter of Anand’s death. The bench pulled up the Dhanbad SSP — who was also present at the hearing — for the delay in registering the FIR as it was filed more than 12 hours after the incident. The judges observed that “judicial officers and advocates were never harmed even in the volatile states of the northeast.”