Lawyers stage cease work strike against Higher Education and Research Bill
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 20, 2012::
Reacting against the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011 introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in the Union Cabinet the High Court Bar Association Manipur today staged a One Day Cease work strike while alleging that provisions of the bill affects the interest of legal professionals.
President of High Court Bar Association Advocate N Kumarjit told mediapersons that the cease work strike staged today by the High Court Bas Association was carried out under the aegis of Bar Council of India against the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011.The Bar Council of India is a statutory body constituted to uphold the interest of legal professionals, legal education and judiciaries instituted under the Advocate Act.
The Act was passed in 1961 to uphold the legal professionals and to strengthen the democracy.
Since then, the Bar Council of India introduced LLB and LLM courses in the country and set up the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.
At present there are 14 National Law Schools in different states of the country.
Unfortunately, the newly introduced bill has provisions to keep the Legal Educations under the Ministry of Human Resource, a step which will bureaucratize leag education.
If legal education comes under the Ministry, it will not be able to give it proper attention since the Ministry is already overburdened.
Like the Medical Council of India which holds the management of medical educations, legal educations should be managed by the Bar Council of India.
He also said that the legal practitioners are also against the Legal Practitioners (Regulationand Maintenance of Standard in Prosecutions, protecting the Interest of Clients and Promoting the Rule of Law) Bill 2010 which mentioned the control of the Bar Councils by Bureaucracy.