[BREAKING] Bar Council of India tells Supreme Court it will frame Rules to outlaw strikes by lawyers, Bar associations

The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it is planning to frame Rules to curtail strikes by lawyers and to take action against bar associations which call for such strikes..BCI chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra made submissions to that effect before a Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud.The Court was hearing an appeal filed by District Bar Association, Dehradun against the judgment of the Uttarakhand High Court holding strikes/ boycott of courts by advocates to be illegal..The case was adjourned for the third week of September on a request by the BCI. "We appreciate the steps being taken by the Bar Council of India in this regard," the Court remarked while adjourning the case.On a different note, the BCI had recently made some significant amendments to the BCI Rules.The new amendments in question had added two new Sections - Section V (‘Duties towards Society and Bar’) and Section V-A (‘Code of conduct and disqualification for members of Bar Councils’) to Chapter II of Part VI of the Bar Council of India RulesThe amendments were notified in the official gazette on June 25,2021.The amendments had caused quite a stir since as per the same, a lawyer making any statement which is indecent or derogatory, defamatory, motivated, malicious or mischievous against any court, judge, State Bar Council or the BCI, can be a ground for suspension or cancellation of licence to practice law.The amendments further said that criticising or attacking any decision of any State Bar Council or Bar Council of India on public domain will also amount to "misconduct", which could attract disqualification or suspension.The amended Rules were, however, kept in abeyance after petitions were filed before the Supreme Court, Kerala High Court and Himachal Pradesh High Court challenging the amendments.