New Delhi, March 23: Judicial work in the tiol capital on Thursday was paralysed as 6,000 city lawyers went on strike to protest a Bar Council of India (BCI) suggestion to the Law Commission that lawyers should be banned from going on strike and slapped with pelties if they do. With no work conducted in the six district courts, the Bar Council later withdrew the suggestion.
The lawyers strike affected over 10,000 matters that were being heard in the Delhi courts daily. As the lawyers were not appearing in the court room, the judges adjourned the matters.
BCI chairman Man Kumar Mishra, in the face of a massive protest march by the city’s lawyers, recommended that the Law Commission reconsider the suggestion of banning lawyers from going on strike.
The move came after around a thousand lawyers held a protest march outside the Bar Council of India office at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg here in the afternoon to “safeguard the dignity” of the legal profession.
Observing the huge presence of lawyers, Delhi Police beefed up security outside the BCI office and most of the shops were shut on the road.
Mishra came out of his office and met the striking lawyers. He assured them that BCI is withdrawing the suggestion.
Earlier in the day, the lawyers burnt an effigy of Mishra to vent their anger against the “arbitrary” decision of the Bar Council. (IANS)