NEW DELHI, July 9:
The Bar Council of India (BCI) today said lawyers across the country would abstain from work on July 11 and 12 in protest against the Government’s Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill aimed at usurping its control over the legal education.
The controversial HER Bill, which also seeks to regulate the legal education system in the country, has been facing strong opposition from the apex lawyers’ body which has termed it as an attempt by the Human Resource Development Ministry to take away their powers.
“Lawyers across the country have decided to take the extreme step of abstaining from the court works on July 11 and 12 because of the adamant attitude and inaction of the HRD Ministry on the issue of HER Bill,” BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said at a press conference here.
Apart from the HER Bill, the apex lawyers’ body is also opposing the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill 2010, the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill and the National Law Schools Bill.
The BCI also termed as “misleading”, the HRD Minister’s recent letter, which says bill would not affect the powers and the functions of the BCI and state bar councils.
“Few days ago the HRD Minister has written a misleading letter stating therein that the powers and functions of the BCI and state bar councils are not going to be affected (by the proposed bills). But the Minister is not ready to exclude the legal education and Advocates Act from the purview of these bills,” Mishra said. The BCI has also warned that if its demands are not met even after the “protest days” of July 11 and 12, then “lawyers across the country would assemble at Jantar Mantar and gherao Parliament on the first day of monsoon session”. (PTI)
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