Supreme Court issues notice to BCI, Jaipur Bar Association on lawyer’s strike; To be heard on September 9, 2014

While hearing an appeal against a judgment of the Rajasthan High Court, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Vikramajit Sen called for an explanation behind the ongoing lawyer’s strike in Rajasthan. The Bench has directed the Bar Council of India, the state bar council of Rajasthan, and the Jaipur High Court Bar Association to appear before the court on September 9, 2014..From perusing the order sheet, it would appear that the Bench was first informed of the strike when presented with an order of the Rajasthan High Court that stated,.“None of the Advocates for the parties is present due to the strike call given by the Bar Association.”.When asked, arguing counsel Sushil Kumar Jain stated that the strike has been held for the last two months. Perturbed by this, the Bench observed that,.“We are at loss to understand why the strike is continuing as a result of which the Court is not assisted by the counsel for the parties. It has come to the notice of this Court that when the High Court passes an order without rendition of assistance by the learned counsel for the parties, submissions otherwise available or supposed to be tenable, as per the perception of the learned counsel appearing before this Court, have not been taken note of by the High Court or the subordinate Court. When queries are made, whey these submissions were not made, they also express their inability.”.Subsequently, the Bench issued notice to the lawyer’s associations and directed them to appear in a week’s time. Given that several meetings held in the recent past have failed to resolve the deadlock in Jaipur, it will be interesting to see what the lawyers’ associations will have to say before the apex court..This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has been made aware of the ongoing strike. In fact, another Bench of the court is hearing the very matter that has resulted in the strike. As reported earlier, a Bench of Justices Mukhopadhaya and Bobde is hearing the appeal filed by one Bharat Bhushan Pareek, a Jaipur-based lawyer against whom eviction orders were passed by a court in Jaipur..Given this fact, it is highly improbable that Justices Misra and Sen were completely unaware of the strike, and the decision to summon the bar councils should serve as a fairly accurate reflection of what the court has in mind. In other words, the two-month long strike may very well be in its final stages.