Functioning of the high and lower courts across the country was hit for the second consecutive day today as lawyers struck work protesting against a bill, which seeks to regulate legal education and profession.
On the second and last day of the protest, the Bar Council of India claimed even the Supreme Court lawyers supported the stir.
The Delhi High Court lawyers, who had not responded to the BCI’s two-day protest call on Wednesday, struck work today, joining their counterparts in various high courts across the country in opposing the Higher Education and Research Bill.
On the second and last day of the country-wide stir, BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told PTI that the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had been exempted from abstaining from work on their request and added its members had extended their full support to the BCI’s stand.
“The BCI had granted exemption to SCBA under the special circumstances, but the members of the SCBA have shown their protest by putting white ribbon over their black coat,” said Mr. Mishra.
Mishra added the BCI would soon convene a joint meeting of all the state bar councils and the office-bearers of various bar associations in the country to chart out future course of action to oppose the Bill, which he said, seeks to usurp the BCI’s statutory power, given by the Advocates Act, to regulate the legal education and profession in the country.
He said the next course of action tentatively included a dharna at Jantar Mantar and peaceful demonstration before Parliament during its forthcoming monsoon sessions.
The reports from various cities, including Mumbai and Srinagar said the lawyers abstained from work on the second day, with the agitating lawyers from Allahabad saying that they would be observing the strike for a third day on Friday as well.
