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

Supreme Court says lawyers cannot go on strike or abstain from work and directed all High Courts to constitute grievance redressal committee at the State level

The Supreme Court on April 20 said lawyers cannot go on strike or abstain from work and directed all High Courts to constitute grievance redressal committee at the State level headed by the Chief Justice, where advocates could make representations for redressal of “genuine problems”.

A Bench headed by Justices M.R. Shah and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that a separate grievance redressal committees be constituted at District Court level to provide a forum, where lawyers could seek redressal of their genuine grievances related to procedural changes in filing or listing of cases or misbehaviour of member of lower judiciary.

“We once again reiterate that no member of the bar can go on strike... Time and again this court has emphasised that advocates going on strike or abstaining from their work hampers judicial work”, the Bench said.

The court disposed of an application filed by District Bar Association of Dehradun seeking an appropriate forum for redressal of their complaints and directed the registry to send the copy of this order to the Registrar-General of all High Courts for taking steps in accordance with the order.

Justice Shah, who pronounced the order, said if members of bar have some genuine grievance or face difficulty because of the procedural changes in filing and listing of matters or any genuine grievance pertaining to the misbehaviour of member of the lower judiciary, they can very well make a representation for redressal of genuine grievance by some forum, so that such strikes could be avoided.

It said the forum should be a place where members of the bar can ventilate their grievances.

“Therefore, we request all High Courts to constitute a grievance redressal committee in their respective High Courts which may be headed by the chief justice and such a grievance redressal committee should consist of two other senior judges — one each from the judicial services and one from the bar — to be nominated by the Chief Justice as well as the Advocate-General of the State, Chairman of the bar council of the State and the president of the High Court bar association,” it said.