Historic Decision: Bar Council asks Law Commission to debar Lawyers from Practicing for participating in strike

March,16,2017:

All such activities would be construed as misconduct and will be liable to be debarred from practising in courts.

To curb the increasing lawlessness among the advocates and to weed out fake ones, Bar Council of India (BCI) has suggested stringent measures, including debarring the advocates from practising for participating in the strikes or abstaining from the court work.In its detailed suggestions to Law Commission, which is drafting amendments to Advocates Act on a reference made to it by Supreme Court, regulatory body stated that law should be amended to statutorily prohibit the lawyers from boycotting or abstaining from work in the courts.

Any lawyer indulging in such activities would be construed to have committed misconduct and will be liable to be debarred from practising in the courts for a certain number of years or permanently .

Matter was referred to Law Commission by the Supreme Court, which was faced with a case on whether a convicted person could continue to practice in a court of law as an advocate.

BCI also took serious note of a large number of fake advocates practising in the courts, whose number BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra pegged at 40% of total 21 lakh lawyers registered with the Bar Councils.

With inputs from TOI