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Jakarta. Hundreds of lawyers began fighting among themselves on Wednesday in the latest twist to the long-simmering dispute between two of Indonesia’s most prominent bar associations.

Supreme Court Chairman Harifin Tumpa was scheduled on Wednesday to swear in advocates from the Indonesian Bar Association (Peradi), which is formally recognized by the court as the only authorized lawyers guild, at the Grand Melia Hotel in South Jakarta.

At 9 a.m., however, hundreds of lawyers from the rival Indonesian Advocates Congress (KAI), which is not recognized, barged into the hotel before the proceeding took place and demanded the Supreme Court also swear in its members.

The KAI members were blockaded by security officials in front of the hotel lobby, before the guards were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

“At this point, we told the participants of the inauguration to exit the ballroom and we locked the ballroom doors to avoid further scuffles,” Peradi secretary general Hasanudin Nasution said.

The lawyers then demanded to enter the ballroom as several senior lawyers from KAI, including Tommy Sihotang and KAI president Indra Sahnun Lubis, also seeking to meet Harifin and Peradi chairman Otto Hasibuan.

“We were deeply hurt when we saw the announcement [of the inauguration] in Kompas [daily newspaper] this morning,” Indra said. “This is discrimination and we suspect that the court is conspiring with Peradi to prolong Peradi’s monopoly. This is a disgrace.”

Dozens of police officers soon arrived at the scene, including South Jakarta police chief Sr. Comr. Gatot Eddy Pramono, and tried to calm both sides. “I ask the Peradi chairman and the KAI president to have peaceful talks with me about this matter,” the officer said amidst the chaos.

Hasanudin said that Peradi opted to call off the inauguration and told Supreme Court chairman Harifin not to come to the hotel.

The Supreme Court this year issued a circular barring KAI lawyers from representing clients in court. The court requires all lawyers with a KAI certificate to still pass a Peradi examination before being allowed to practice.

The circular sparked protests from KAI. In July, around 100 KAI lawyers rallied and vandalized the Supreme Court building. The protesters threw a huge flowerpot at the court’s security guards before scuffling with police officers deployed to control the mob.

The two rival groups previously held a series of negotiations under the mediation of the Supreme Court, aimed at establishing a single bar association accommodating lawyers from both groups by 2012.

Indra said that the Supreme Court’s circular and Wednesday’s planned inauguration violated the agreement.

Peradi was set up in 2005 as a combination of eight existing bar associations. The move fulfilled provisions of a law in 2003 that required the establishment of a single non-governmental advocate organization to test and certify Indonesia’s lawyers.

The Constitutional Court in 2006 upheld Peradi’s status as the official organization to issue certifications for the country’s lawyers.

But in July 2007, a number of prominent lawyers set up the KAI, saying that Peradi was legally flawed since it was formed at the outset by only a few individuals instead of a congress of advocates.