Supreme Court: The bench of Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia, JJ has asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to submit an affidavit within two weeks detailing instances of State Bar Associations calling for strikes in the past one year and the action taken thereof.
The direction came during a hearing of a contempt petition filed by an NGO, Common Cause, which submitted before the Court that the BCI was not taking steps to prevent advocates from striking and was failing to manage disciplinary control.
The court had, on an earlier occasion, criticised the BCI for not devising “concrete” plans to prevent state bar associations from striking and abstaining from court work.
It is also pertinent to note that the Supreme Court has been critical of lawyers going on strikes. Earlier this year, in District Bar Association Dehradun v. Ishwar Shandilya, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 457, the Supreme Court had held that that no member of the Bar can go on strike and/or abstain himself from court working and has hence, requested all the High Courts to constitute Grievance Redressal Committee in their respective High Courts.
Source: Press