Madhya Pradesh State Bar Council calls for another 2-day strike to protest against scheme to dispose of oldest cases

The Madhya Pradesh State Bar Council on Monday resolved to go on another two-day strike to protest against a scheme envisaged by the administration of the High Court to dispose of long-pending cases in district courts..The resolution was passed by the Vice-Chairman of the State Bar Council RK Singh Saini, on the aid and advice of other members in a general body meeting held on March 27.The Council claimed that the High Court has taken no initiative to meet the demands of the advocates to revoke the 25 debt scheme, as per which district courts are required to dispose of 25 of the oldest cases within 3 months. Keeping in view the dissatisfaction among advocates in the district courts, the Council called upon all lawyers in the State to abstain from court work on March 28 and 29. The advocates will not even do judicial remand and bail petition cases, the resolution stated..Protests against the scheme began last month, with the lawyers deciding to go on strike from March 23 to March 25..The High Court subsequently took suo motu cognizance of the strike, calling it a "sad day for the State of Madhya Pradesh". Chief Justice Ravi Malimath had warned the striking advocates that contempt action would be taken against them if the boycott was not called off..On Monday, the Court issued show cause notices to the Chairman and every elected member of the State Bar Council seeking an explanation why criminal contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for compelling lawyers to abstain from judicial work.Justice Atul Sreedharan noted that the strike called by the Chairman was in brazen defiance of the order passed by the High Court on March 24..Madhya Pradesh High Court registers contempt of court case against State Bar Council chairman, members for compelling lawyers to strike.In January this year, a meeting was convened involving the registrar general of the High Court and principal and district judges from across the State to discuss the scheme to dispose of the 25 oldest cases in each court. During the meeting, the following clarifications and instructions were issued by the registrar general to the district judges:List of 25 cases for each quarter be prepared and a consolidated list of 100 cases be send to the Registry;Undisposed cases out of the oldest 25 cases by the end of the year 2022 be carry forwarded to the first quarter of the year 2023 which is in addition to the 25 oldest cases of first quarter of 2023;Where a judge holding a link court for any period, the list of 25 oldest cases be prepared from the pending cases of regular/link court proportionately in accordance with the number of working days of link/regular court;Cases under Section 125 CrPC for maintenance (excluding cases under section 125 sub-section (3) CrPC for recovery of maintenance) and Land Acquisition Reference cases be also included in the list of 25 oldest cases.The cases in which the proceedings are stayed by the Hon'ble High Court or Hon'ble Supreme Court, such cases be excluded from the list of oldest 25 cases and a separate list of stayed matters be prepared.These directions were ordered to be brought to the knowledge of all judges working in each district, so that they may take necessary action.Chief Justice Malimath had revealed during his Republic Day speech this year that the High Court has disposed of 1,21,041 cases in 2022, the oldest of such cases dating back to 1968.He had appreciated the immense success of the 25 debt scheme introduced in October 2021 to tackle the issue of old cases which were pending for many years."Older cases were being shelved while other cases were being heard and disposed off. To solve this issue and keeping in mind the huge pendency of cases in the district judiciary, a special programme '25 Debt' was envisaged," CJ Malimath had stated.