The Vanchiyoor court in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening witnessed violent clashes between mediapersons and lawyers in a continuation of the altercation between journalists and advocates at the Kerala High Court in Ernakulam.
The lawyers also closed down the court media centre and pasted multiple posters which read, “People from the fourth gender should not enter”.
Journalistic sources say trouble began in the capital city when a few journalists from the visual media landed up at the court premises to capture visuals of posters that had reportedly come up against the entry of mediapersons into the court premises.
The lawyers locked up the media-room and threatened the gathered journalists from ever entering the court premises again. They even went to the extent of taunting the media by boasting of how they knew to manipulate the law in their favour.
Even as the journalists peacefully left the court premises, they were being subject to continuous verbal abuse by the lawyers who literally pushed them out of the gates.
“Go ahead and file cases against us. Many cases such as beating up a circle inspector, and even a judge have been filed against us in the past. The case is still on. Nothing is going to happen to us. The law cannot touch us,” a lawyer was reportedly heard yelling.
The main gate to the court was locked from the inside by the advocates while the media gathered in full force outside. Things started taking an ugly turn when the lawyers started pelting the gathered mediapersons with stones.
This happened at a time when students of the nearby St. Joseph’s school were on their way home. Seeing this, onlookers as well as loading workers too joined the mediapersons in protesting against such blatant display of highhandedness indulged in by the lawyers.
The media persons also sat in protest on the court premises and refused to leave until the lawyers who had pelted stones on them were identified.
However, even as media persons sat in protest, some lawyers pelted them with pieces of glass and broken tube lights injuring more journalists.
One Jeevan TV reporter Anulal and one court reporter were injured in the incident.