Minister lambasts strike against foreign lawyers and CPC

Minister lambasts strike against foreign lawyers and CPC
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, FEB 22: Law minister Ram Jethmalani today lambasted lawyers for resorting to strike against entry of foreign lawyers and the new Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and dared them to challenge it before any court of law.

"If the amendments to CPC are so unreasonable that they call for a strike, I dare them to challenge its validity in the court," Jethmalani said.

"Lawyers have a judicial forum open to them. Why are they going to the streets?" he said, adding, "The amendments will doubtlessly hasten the disposal of cases and reduce the volume of litigation."

"We have to grapple with the mind-boggling problem of 32 lakh cases pending in the high courts and another three crore pending before the sub-ordinate courts," the Law Minister said, justifying the changes brought into the code.

Jethmalani said the lawyers were resorting to strike at the mention of the changes which were framed after wide deliberations with expert committees, prestigious institutions including the Law Commission and the Law Minister's conference and which were passed by the Parliament.

"When have the lawyers come to the Government or to me with a solution to this mind-boggling problem of pendency of cases in the courts?" he asked.

Referring to the February 24 strike call given by various advocate bodies, he said, "Lawyers are independent professionals and strike calls do not fit in with the dignity and independence of this profession."

Jethmalani said, "A strike is an instrument in the hands of a labourer to secure justice from the employer," and added that lawyers by calling for a strike "are acting against the public who ultimately would suffer."

He said the law relating to strike was well settled and it has been held by the Supreme Court that it should be used in rarest of rare cases. "In my personal view, it should not exist at all," the Law Minister said.

Referring to opposition to the entry of foreign lawyers, he said, "It is a misunderstanding deliberately or otherwise which has caused totally avoidable fear in the minds of some lawyers."

He said opening the entry of foreign lawyers to practice in India and the continuous legal education for lawyers were only a suggestion in a working paper of the Law Commission.

"There is no legislative proposal before the Government. It is only a working paper formulated by the prestigious Law Commission," Jethmalani said.

"Every sensible lawyer should study that paper and intelligently participate in the resulting debate," he said.

He said this (entry of foreign lawyers) seemed to be the real cause of irritation for the lawyers, but defended the idea of allowing foreign lawyers to practice in India, saying, "The Advocates Act already provides that they can appear in India on a basis of reciprocity."