Strike called by lawyers every Saturday for past 35 years declared illegal by SC
New
Delhi,
Feb
28:
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.
Bomb blast in Pak, earthquake in Nepal as grounds for lawyers' strikes irk Supreme Court
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.
Recommended Video
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.