Lawyers Cannot Go On Strike, Says Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said lawyers cannot go on strike or abstain from work. It directed all high courts to constitute a grievance redressal committee at the state level headed by the chief justice, where advocates could make representations for the redressal of “genuine problems”.

A bench headed by Justices MR Shah and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that a separate grievance redressal committee be constituted at the 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 the lower judiciary, news agency PTI reported.

“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 the District Bar Association of Dehradun seeking an appropriate forum for the redressal of their complaints and directed the registry to send a 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 the 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 a 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 vent 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.

The bench said the high courts may also constitute a similar grievance redressal committee at the district court level.

The top court had earlier warned striking members of the bar associations in several districts of Odisha of contempt proceedings or suspension of licences. On Monday, it granted the last opportunity to the lawyers, who indulged in vandalism on court premises in Sambalpur during a protest over the demand to establish a permanent Bench of the Orissa High Court, to file their affidavits within a period of six weeks after a bench, comprising Justice SK Kaul and Justice Aravind Kumar, was told that 33 of the 190, who had been served notices, were yet to file affidavits.