Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 11: Lawyers today abstained from work in all courts including High Court in response to a call given by the Bar Council of India.
The call has been given by Bar Council of India in protest against the Central Government’s move to pass Higher Education Research Bill, National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill and National Law School Bill besides against Jammu and Kashmir Residential and Commercial Tenancy Act.
President Bar Association Jammu, B S Slathia, who was leading the protest, urged the Central Government to review its move to usurp the powers and functions of the Bar Council of India.
While addressing press conference, Vikram Sharma, general secretary Bar Association Jammu, said “the move of the Central Government is aimed at usurping the powers and functions of the Bar Council of India while proposing to constitute an authority to regulate the standards of legal education in India”, he said, adding “Bar Council of India is empowered under an earlier Act of the Parliament to recognize the institutions/colleges imparting legal education as also to enroll those students who pass out from the Bar Council of India recognized institutions to be the Advocates on rolls of Bar Councils across India”.
He lamented that with the proposed bills, the Central Government particularly the Human Resource Development Ministry is contemplating to take away these powers of Bar Council of India, which practice has been in existence and working successfully for the past so many decades.
Meanwhile Bar Associations across the districts and Muffasils in the State have also responded to the call of the Bar Council of India.
Young Lawyers Association, Udhampur strongly opposed the proposed move of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre to curtail the powers of the Bar Council of India.
“This move is clearly an attack on the independence of legal profession in the country”, Sunny Mahajan, president of Young Lawyers Association said.
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