Supporting last week’s call of the Bar Council of India, the Odisha State Bar Council on Wednesday decided to observe April 21 as All India Protest Day against the proposed Advocates’ (Amendment)
Bill-2017 as suggested by the law Commission of India (lCI).
Speaking to reporters here, Odisha Bar Council chairman Manas Ranjan Mohapatra said the lawyers of the State would abstain from court works on April 21 and burn the report of the lCI in front of their respective courts.
Welcoming all lawyers from across the country to the National Convention of the Council scheduled to be held in Bhubaneswar on April 22, Mohapatra said the executive body members of different Bar Councils and Bar Associations would hold deliberations and take a decision on further course of action against the report of the lCI.
Terming the report to be a “draconian” proposal that would take away the autonomy and independence of the Indian bar, the State Bar Council expressed strong resentment to the recommendations of the lCI, saying if the proposals are implemented then it would put the entire legal fraternity in jeopardy.
The Bill proposes that the executive members of the Bar Councils are to be henceforth nominated by the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the members of the Councils were elected by the enrolled advocates of different courts. The Bill also proposes that 50 per cent of the executive members are to be people from the fields of commerce, accountancy or management, medical science or social science.
The contentious issue, to which the lawyers are objecting to, is the recommendation of the lCI which says that the lawyers would henceforth be required to pay compensation to the clients to the tune of Rs 5 lakh in case they go on strikes, abstinence or fail to appear in cases even if the clients might not have paid a single rupee as fee to the lawyers.