Lawyers can't go on strike or abstain from judicial work: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday once again reiterated that no member of the Bar can go on strike and abstain himself from court working and directed for setting up a grievance redressal mechanism to deal with genuine problems of the lawyers.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked all the High Courts to constitute grievance redressal committee headed by the Chief Justice and consisting of two other senior judges, as well as the Advocate General, Chairman of the Bar Council of the State and President of the High Court Bar Association, to address problems of lawyers and avoid their frequent strikes.

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"Time and again, this court has emphasised and criticised the advocates going on strike and abstaining them from work. If the member of the Bar has any genuine grievance or the difficulty being faced because of the procedural changes in filing/listing of the matters and/or any genuine grievance pertaining to misbehave of any member of the lower judiciary they can very well make a representation," the bench said.

The court said that it is appropriate that the lawyers' genuine grievances are considered by some forum so that such strikes can be avoided. Members of the Bar who might have genuine problems may ventilate their grievances before the forum, it added.

"The High Court may also consider to constitute the similar Grievance Redressal Committee at the District Court level," the bench added.

The top court passed its order as the Bar Council of India, led by its president Manan Kumar Mishra, contended that in order to check and control the frequent strikes, boycotts, the regulatory body has suggested various measures, including putting in place a mechanism for redressal of the grievances of advocates/Bar Associations at all levels.

"The Bar Council is of the firm view and opinion that the illegal and unreasonable strikes and boycott are always bad and it can never approve or encourage such practices," it said.