In view of the unsatisfactory response from the government to its demand for excluding legal education from the Higher Education Bill, the Bar Council of India has decided to go ahead with its plan to gherao Parliament and stage dharnas.
Initially lawyers’ representatives, BCI members, officer-bearers of the State Bar Councils and members of the central steering committee would stage a dharna at Jantar Mantar here on August 8 to express their anguish over the government’s move to take away the powers of the BCI.
On July 11 and 12, about 17 lakh lawyers across the country (except in the Supreme Court) struck work.
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BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra and steering committee convener S. Prabhakaran said: “Foreign law colleges, foreign solicitor firms and lawyers from other countries would be allowed to work in India if the proposed legislation are passed in Parliament. The framers of the Advocates’ Act, 1961 purposely gave the responsibility of legal education to the representative bodies of lawyers, because legal education has its direct nexus with legal profession.”
If the HRD Ministry did not exclude the Advocates Act and legal educational institutions from the proposed Bills, lawyers from all over the country would undertake a protest march to Parliament on August 27, said Mr. Mishra and Mr. Prabhakaran.