Bar Council of India suspends 29 Odisha striking lawyers for resorting to vandalism
New Delhi, December 13
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has suspended the licences of 29 Odisha lawyers for 18 months for using un-parliamentary words to address judges, manhandling policemen and obstructing court proceedings.
The BCI – which regulates legal profession in India – also issued an interim order suspending licences of practice of all the members of Sambalpur District Bar Association (SDBA) until further orders. A final call regarding action against other members of SDBA shall be taken after getting a report from the Registrar as well as the State Bar Council, the BCI said.
The decision was taken on Monday evening after certain video clips showed protesting lawyers barging into courtrooms and damaging computers and other properties, it said.
The protesting lawyers are demanding a permanent Bench of the state high court in western Odisha.
Earlier, the top court had asked the BCI to explain as to what extent licences of the lawyers leading the agitation had been suspended.
As striking lawyers in Odisha continued to vandalise courts, the Supreme Court had on Monday asked the Odisha DGP to appear before it through video conferencing on December 14 to spell out the measures taken to deal with the situation.
“We will put all of them into custody… No solution. If a thousand people need to be arrested let them be arrested. We don’t care. If this is what you do we are not going to hear,” an angry Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had said.
“If the police are unable to control it, we will send para-military forces. We will ask the Centre for it. You (police) better pull up your socks,” the Bench had told the state police as it asked them to ensure there is no disruption of court proceedings in Odisha due to lawyers’ strike and protest.
The Bench had issued the directions after watching some videos of the agitation and perusing an affidavit filed by the Registrar General of the Orissa High Court which said despite the top court’s November 28 order, reports have been received from some district judges, including that of Sambalpur, about non-participation in court work by members of bar associations.
The Sambalpur district judge and other judicial officers were prevented from entering the court premises on November 30 and they had to return without holding courts as a result of which none of the 924 cases listed there could be taken up, the Bench was told.
“On one hand, you are making demands for a bench of the high court, and on the other hand, you are doing nothing. The litigants are the sufferers. You are disrupting the court proceedings,” it had noted.
