Madhya Pradesh: Jabalpur lawyers begin 3-day strike against High Court order on prioritizing old cases

Madhya Pradesh Bar Council has called the strike against the recent order by the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh asking the district courts to dispose of 25-year-old cases every quarter of the year, saying it will affect the new cases at the lower courts.

Jabalpur: Lawyers at the District Court in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur have called for a three day strike beginning Thursday against a recent order by the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh asking to dispose of 25-year-old cases every quarter of the year. The protesting lawyers said that the directive was affecting both the litigants as well as the lawyers besides stalling new cases at the district courts.

Madhya Pradesh Bar Council President Prem Singh Bhadoria confirmed that the association has announced a three day strike of the lawyers from Mar. 23-25 against the order of the Chief Justice. In the administrative order of the High Court, the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued directions to all the district courts saying that the pending cases older than 25 years be heard on a daily basis and disposed of within 3 months.

The High Court which is monitoring this hearing, has further asked the District Courts to submit the work done report with the high court on a daily basis. The district courts will have to inform the High Court on which cases it has heard and how many 25-year-old cases have been disposed of. The High Court has warned of action against the judges for non-compliance.

The order has left the lawyers enraged. The lawyers said that although they were not against prioritizing the old cases, but pushing new cases to the backburner will affect both the lawyers as well as the litigants. Bar Council President Prem Singh Bhadoria said that he had written to the Chief Justice demanding the withdrawal of the order, but the Chief Justice did not intervene on this issue.

Making things worse, Bar Council of India President Manan Kumar Mishra had written a letter in which he wrongly claimed that the lawyers of Madhya Pradesh will now return to work and the strike should be called off immediately, Bhadoria said. Bhadoria again wrote to the Chief Justice saying that the Madhya Pradesh Bar Council being an independent organization, was not withdrawing the strike call.

The Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh has said that the strike will go on until the order of the Chief Justice is not withdrawn. For now, the strike has been called for Mar. 23 to 25. On March 25, there will be a general meeting of the Madhya Pradesh Bar Council, after which further strategy will be decided.