New Delhi, Jul 11: Proceedings in Delhi district courts were affected today as lawyers abstained from work in response to the Bar Council of India's (BCI) call to observe July 11 and 12 as “protest days” to oppose the government's proposed Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill.
The HER Bill, which seeks to regulate legal education system in the country, has been facing strong opposition from the apex lawyer's body which has alleged that it is aimed at usurping the BCI's control over legal education.
Lawyers in all the district courts, Patiala House, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Dwarka, Saket and Rohini boycotted the court proceedings and only the proxy counsel appeared in court to get the next date of hearing in the cases.
Extending their support to the BCI's call, President of New Delhi Bar Association, Rajiv Rai, said, “As its BCI's call to abstain from work, so all the lawyers are supporting it.
As of now we are on strike even tomorrow. But if any development takes place during the day, we would decide our next step.”
R K Jain, President, Shahdara Bar Association, said, “There is complete strike in Karkardooma court.
We are not working and lawyers will continue to abstain from work tomorrow here. We are fully supporting BCI.”
“We (lawyers) are not attending any of the court proceedings. Only the proxy counsels have been asked to stand in the court to take next date in the matters,”
Avnish Rana, Secretary of Dwarka Court Bar Association, said, adding the advocates would abstain from work all through the day tomorrow as well.
The hearing of the 2G spectrum allocation scam case and CWG scam case, being heard on a daily basis in Patiala House, were also adjourned due to the boycott of work by lawyers.
Litigants suffered due to the boycott by the lawyers.
A woman litigant, who had come to the Patiala House court, was seen arguing with her counsel for not informing her in advance about the strike.
