New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday asked the chairperson of the Bar Council of India (BCI) to render assistance in a matter related to problem of strikes and abstention of work by lawyers.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah noted that the apex court had delivered a judgement on February 28 last year and had asked the BCI and state bar councils to give concrete suggestions to deal with the issue.

“The office report indicates that despite the judgment of this court, no response has been received either from the Bar Council of India or from the state bar councils,” the bench noted in its order.

The top court directed that copy of the judgement be furnished to senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, who is the chairperson of BCI.

“We request Manan Kumar Mishra, senior counsel to render assistance to this court in his capacity as chairperson of the Bar Council of India,” the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on August 27.

In its February last year verdict, the apex court had taken note of an order passed in September 2019 by the Uttarakhand High Court and observed it appeared that advocates in district of Dehradun and in several districts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar have been boycotting courts on all Saturdays for the past more than 35 years.

The top court had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue and asked the BCI and all state bar councils to suggest further course of action to deal with the problem of strikes/abstaining from work by the lawyers.

It had dismissed an appeal challenging the Uttarakhand High Court order which had asked the lawyers' and their associations to withdraw the strike in district courts and start attending courts on all working Saturdays.

"Even in the present case, the advocates have been boycotting the courts on all Saturdays, in the entire district of Dehradun, in several parts of the district of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar district of the State of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand). Because of such strikes, the ultimate sufferers are the litigants," the top court had said in its verdict.

It had directed all concerned district bar associations to comply with the directions issued by the high court in its 2019 verdict in its true spirit.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)