Bar Council of India is apex body and should act like one: Supreme Court seeks BCI response on lawyers' strikes

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a dim view of the Bar Council of India (BCI) not being able to prevent lawyers from going on strikes. (Common Cause v. Abhijat and Ors).While observing that the issue should concern all stakeholders, a Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheswari and Sudhanshu Dhulia indicated that the Council should exercise the authority it commands."Bar Council of India is the apex body and should act like one. What are the preventive measures being taken?...This can never acquire the proportions of adversarial litigation," the Bench remarked..The Court was hearing a contempt petition filed by NGO Common Cause, seeking action against lawyers abdicating from court work.When the case was heard in 2019, it was submitted that the Bar Council of India was not enforcing its own resolutions in this regard, nor looking into the need for disciplinary action. The top court had then directed the BCI to file a comprehensive affidavit showing pendency of various disciplinary matters across the country, including those with State Bar Councils. .Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner-organisation, today submitted that the BCI had not even suspended from practice those who went on strike."We expect a serious response from you," Justice Maheshwari then told Advocate Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, counsel for the BCI.The parties were asked to file short notes, and the matter was next listed for January 24, 2023..The Supreme Court had last month frowned upon protests and court boycotts held by lawyers of district bar associations in western Odisha who are demanding a permanent bench of the Orissa High Court at Sambalpur.A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka had observed,"The legal fraternity is the instrument of access to justice to the people at large. When the very instruments abstain from court proceedings, the casualty is the access to justice to common people and it is the common people and litigants who suffer. We will not countenance this.".[Read order]