No more strikes, or face disqualification: BCI to Tamil Nadu lawyers

Days after former and current members of the Bar Council of India were sentenced to five years imprisonment, the BCI has issued a stricture against striking lawyers in Tamil Nadu..As per a “Chairman’s Order” passed today, the State Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has been told to immediately call off any strikes or abstentions from work. And if this is not done so within two days, the BCI shall be placing the respective bar association leaders under suspension, and also disqualified from contesting any bar elections..That is not all..The Tamil Nadu Bar Association has also been directed to “convene a press conference” tomorrow and “take up this issue”..It is not clear what the immediate provocation of this order is, but it appears that the BCI is mindful of the “image of Bar” being “tarnished” by constant strikes, boycotts and abstentions. The order comes even as lawyers in Punjab, Haryana, and Kerala have gone on strikes following the arrest of (non-BCI) lawyers..Read the Chairman’s Order below.