The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Madhya Pradesh High Court to reconsider the contempt notices issued to those advocates, who were not able to attend the High Court proceedings and who were not office bearers of the state bar council.
The Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia passed the orders on a petition challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court order of March 25, by which it initiated contempt proceedings against more than 2500 state lawyers for going on a strike against a scheme for disposing of pending cases
On March 25, the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur had initiated a suo motu Public Interest Litigation after the Chairman of the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh asked the Advocates to abstain from court work from March 23.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra observed that it was of the considered view that the duty of a lawyer was to uphold the rule of law. It was he, who fought for the legal rights of a litigant.
It said there were almost 20 lakh cases pending in the district court judiciary and more than four lakh cases pending in the High Court. Every effort was being made by the High Court to reduce the pendency, noted the High Court.
It said the action of the respondent No.1 (Chairman, State Bar Council of MP) seeking to abstain from court work was opposed to the well-established principles of the legal profession. The respondent No.1 (Chairman, State Bar Council of MP) could not call for an illegal act to be done.
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