New Delhi, March 27, 2017: Lawyers across India will refrain from work on March 31 to challenge a proposed bill that bars advocates from going on strike which was declared on Tuesday.
While talking to IANS, Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said the proposed amendments by the Law Commission in the Advocates Act were "draconian, anti-lawyer, unconstitutional, undemocratic and anti-people".
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"The recommendations of the Law Commission are against the legal profession and legal education of the country is in danger because of this proposed bill," Mishra said.
"The regulation and control of legal profession and legal education is proposed to be handed over to non-lawyers and the advocates will have to face disciplinary proceedings before people not connected with the legal profession," he added.
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However, the Supreme Court lawyers will not participate in the strike but they will extend their support to other lawyers.
The website of Bar Council of India states that there were some 1.2 million lawyers in the country till 2013. The abstinent of more than a million lawyers will give a hard blow to the judiciary.
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"The strike will be observed by all the lawyers across high courts and district courts. However, Supreme Court lawyers will not participate in the strike, though will put a white ribbon on their coat as a mark of protest," said Chairman of the Bar Council's Executive Committee and senior advocate Apurba Kumar Sharma.
The Bar Council said that due to proposed enactment, there are the prospectives of overwhelming and dominating the council by chartered accountants, architects, politicians, doctors and others.
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The Council also urged the government to dismiss the suggestions of the Law Commission.
The Bar Council criticized the Commission by saying that it seemed to have acted hastily without considering the proposals of the BCI and rather considered the recommendations of just non-legal counselors.
"It (proposed bill) has defined the misconduct in such a provocative manner that any judge, judicial official or a client can easily say that the behavior of the lawyer was unlawful, disgraceful or dishonorable," the Council said.
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"In a nutshell, the Council is of the unanimous opinion that the autonomy, democracy and the mandate of the Constitution of the country are proposed to be throttled by the said bill."
Recently, the judiciary in the Delhi came to a halt on March 23 when some 6,000 lawyers went on strike to protest against suggestions that lawyers should be banned from going on strike and slapped with penalties if they do.
Now with the strike going national, the whole judicial system is determined to be paralyzed on March 31.
-prepared by Ashish Srivastava of NewsGram Twitter @PhulRetard