13,000 lawyers to join protest against Higher Education and Research Bill

As many as 13,000 lawyers in the city will participate in a nation-wide protest against Higher Education and Research Bill,2011,starting from June 10-July 12. Top on the agenda of the Bar Council of India (BCI) is signing the resolution against the Bill,meeting the Members of Parliament (MPs) to voice their protest and abstaining from work for two days.

The BCI has directed all the Bar Associations and State Bar Councils in the country to send copies of their resolutions against the Bill to the President of India Pratibha Patil,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,Union Minister for Law and Justice Salman Khurshid,Union Minister for Corporate Affairs Veerappa Moily,Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal and others “to draw their attention to the malafide intention with which these draft Bills are sought to be introduced,” said secretary J R Sharma and chairman Manan Kumar Mishra of BCI. The Bar Associations and State Bar Councils are expected to forward these resolutions by June 10 and June 17 respectively,said advocate Satish Deshmukh,member of the BCI from Maharashtra.

In the second step from June 18-June 30,a delegation from all the Bar Associations in the country will hand over a copy of their resolution of protest to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of their constituencies with a request to oppose this Bill inside and outside Parliament. This will be followed by observing July 11-12 as ‘protest days’ by lawyers across the country “by abstaining from work,holding a peaceful dharna at respective district and state headquarters and burning copies of the Bill,” said Mishra.

“If the demand of excluding legal education from the Bill is not accepted,lawyers will assemble at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the first day of Parliamentary session in August to voice their protest,” said Deshmukh. He added that the plan was chalked out at a joint meeting of BCI chairman and representatives of the state Bar Councils and Bar Associations on May 19.