New Delhi: Lawyers in all districts courts here have decided to abstain from work on January 20 to enforce a nationwide protest against the Centre`s proposal to establish an ombudsman consisting of judges to hear complaints against lawyers.
The Co-Ordination Committee of all bar associations of
Delhi district courts said in a statement that the Bar Council
of India (BCI) is already handling complaints against
advocates and the Centre is trying to take away the BCI powers
by setting up a parallel body of judges.
"Lawyers are amazed that the government, under the grab
of protecting the interest of clients and promoting the rule
of law, is giving authority to judges by appointing them as
ombudsman to throttle the independent and fearless voice of
the members of the Bar who often speak against the corruption
and corrupt practices of the judges," said Rajiv Khosla,
the spokesperson of the co-ordination committee.
The committee also opposed the government`s move to enact
a law to take over the BCI`s authority over legal education
and alleged it is being done to make the Bar Council
"absolutely redundant".
"The government is unable to keep its control to provide
quality education in various colleges and universities in
India and therefore it is not understood as to how it will be
able to improve the standards of legal education by bringing
it under the control of some other authority," it said.
Asking the government not to enact such laws, Khosla said
lawyers will neither tolerate any attempt to dilute the BCI
powers nor allow the government to open the legal sector for
foreign advocates.
PTI
