Lawyers oppose panel’s plan to discipline them

are up in arms against the Law Commision of India’s proposed move to suggest nominating unelected experts to the current disciplinary action framework against them. The law panel feels the disciplinary committees managed by the bar councils are inadequate, sources said.

The Bar Council of India has asked of state bar councils to call emergency meetings to discuss the issue and prepare for an agitation. HT had reported the law commission’s proposed move last Saturday.

“We strongly oppose this move. Advocates will not tolerate outsiders deciding what constitutes indiscipline,” BCI chief Manan Kumar Mishra said. Mishra said the BCI had already taken a strong view on strikes and suspension of work by lawyers. “We are the ones who wrote to the commission saying strikes will be treated as illegal.”

The recommendation was part of the measures suggested by the BCI to the law panel in an exhaustive report. Ironically, the BCI’s recommendation has upset lawyers too. Last year, it had suspended 126 lawyers in Tamil Nadu for striking work.

“The BCI should first clarify its stance on lawyers’ strikes,” Delhi high court bar association president Kirti Uppal said. “Lawyers have a right to go on strike to protect the independence and dignity of the bar.” Uppal accused the BCI of not taking stakeholders into confidence before compiling its report to the law panel.

The SC had asked the commission last year to suggest changes to the existing Advocates Act that governs lawyers and legal practice in India, particularly in the context of disciplining errant lawyers. The law commission’s report is expected to be submitted to the law ministry this week, its chairman Justice BS Chauhan told HT.

“The commission’s recommendations are largely based on the BCI’s own report. We will make suggestions that are in concurrence with the Supreme Court’s reference to the commission,” he said.

Maharashtra medical education minister Girish Mahajan has warned doctors who are on strike to join duty or face stern action, including salary cut for six months.

The government will cut six months’ salary of the doctors who do not follow the orders, Mahajan declared.

“We have intimated to the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) to ask their doctors to resume duty by 8pm tonight (Wednesday), else get ready to face six months’ salary cut,” the minister said.

Junior doctors in the state are on strike since the last four days protesting the rise in violence against them by relatives of patients.

Despite a rap by the Bombay high court, around 3,000 resident doctors in government hospitals in Maharashtra continued their mass casual leave agitation for the third day on Wednesday.

Health care services for the poor were hit significantly across the state as the agitation threatened to escalate with other government doctors expressing support.

Boosting the doctors’ cause, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Wednesday expressed support to the doctors’ demand for implementation of the Violence Against Doctors Act, 2010, and adequate security provisions for them as per the high court directives.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday urged the doctors to resume office, saying duty towards mankind was far more important.