An advocate, who is the petitioner in the case, had moved court seeking removal of these encroachments, which included several chambers of lawyers. The matter came up for hearing before a division bench headed by Jain and Justice K S Ahluwalia. After going through a report submitted by the Deputy Commissioner of Panchkula Rajender Kumar Kataria, which states that lawyers are encroachers here, Jain told them, “You can’t take the law into your own hands. Let me make this very clear that we are not protecting any encroachment. We will not permit a single encroachment. You have no right to encroach on this land.”

The Chief Justice further told advocates that the Bench can ask the administration and HUDA to cooperate with them for the construction of their chambers but will not tolerate any encroachment. “From the report of the DC, it is clear that these are naked encroachments. Don’t involve in trade unionism,” he observed.

The law officer further contended that lawyers have threatened to go on strike if their demands are not met. Reacting to this, the Chief Justice observed, “Lawyers are not bound by us. They are all very intelligent, powerful lawyers. If they don’t abide by our orders, what can we do?”