Lawyers to go on half-day countrywide strike on Friday

More than 14 lakh lawyers across the country will observe a half-day strike on Friday to protest against Law Commission recommendations, including a proposal to ban strikes by advocates, the Bar Council of India (BCI) said on Thursday.

Lawyers will abstain from court work after lunch on April 21 and also burn copies of the Law Commission recommendations and the Advocates Act (Amendment) Bill 2017, BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told media here.

The Law Commission had also suggested that lawyers should be slapped with penalties if they resort to strike in future.

The BCI has dubbed the amendments proposed by the Law Commission in the Advocates Act as "draconian, anti-lawyers, unconstitutional, undemocratic and anti-people".

"The Law Commission recommendations are against the legal profession and independence of the Bar," the lawyers' body said.

Mishra said if Law Commission's "anti-lawyers recommendations" were not rejected by the government, the lawyers will hold a protest march from the Patiala House Courts to Rajghat in the national capital on May 2.

Thereafter, he warned, rallies and 'jail bharo' campaign will be launched by the Bar Council if the situation still remained deadlocked.

As per the BCI, there are around 14.5 lakh lawyers across the country, as of December 2016.

"The regulation and control of the legal profession and legal education is proposed to be handed over to non-lawyers. Advocates will have to face disciplinary proceedings conducted by people not at all connected with the legal profession," the BCI Chairman said.