SC hits out at Uttarakhand lawyers striking work every Saturday for 35 years

The apex court had rapped the lawyers for resorting to such a “joke” and holding strikes for “flimsy reasons”

A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. File

The Supreme Court on Friday held as illegal the strike called by lawyers on every Saturday for the past 35 years in three district courts of Uttarakhand.

A bench headed by justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said the strike called by lawyers on flimsy grounds is tantamount to contempt.

The court issued notices to the Bar Council of India and state Bar Council seeking their response.

The apex court had on February 21 rapped the lawyers for resorting to

such a “joke” and holding strikes for “flimsy reasons”, like bomb blast in a Pakistan school and earthquake in Nepal, on all working Saturdays for more than the past 35 years.

The issue came to the notice of the apex court while it was hearing an appeal against the verdict of the Uttarakhand High Court which had held as “illegal” the strikes or boycotts of court work on all Saturdays by lawyers in Dehradun and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

In its September 25, 2019 verdict, the high court had referred to the 266th report of the Law Commission, which had analysed data on loss of working days on account of strikes by lawyers and had opined that it affects functioning of courts and contributes to the mounting pendency of cases.