Supreme Court Asks Striking Odisha Lawyers To Get Back To Work Or Face Contempt Action & Suspension Of License

Justice Kaul, expressing his profound dissatisfaction, said, "Even if we have to suspend 200-300 advocates, we will do that. We can ask the state bar council to cancel all your registrations. We will come down very heavily on you. Do not force our hand."

The Bench noted, with reproach, that between January 1 and September 30, 2,14,176 judicial working hours in subordinate courts were lost due to the strike. "The effect," Justice Kaul said, "was to practically bring the working of the judicial system to a standstill, jeopardising the litigating public."

The Bench noted in the orderr, "Access to justice is the very foundation of a legal system. The legal fraternity is the instrument of access to justice to the people at large. When the very instruments abstain from court proceedings, the casualty is the access to justice to the common people and it is the common people and litigants who suffer. We will not countenance this."

Justice Kaul, issuing a thinly veiled threat to the striking lawyers, said, "If all of you are not back to work by day after tomorrow, you do not know what will happen. We will take this to such a logical conclusion that you will lose your source of employment. We do not care if hundreds of lawyers lose their source of employment. But the public cannot be made to suffer like this. They are suffering because of you."

Justice Oka interjected, "Not only litigants, but the junior members of the bar suffer as well because of strikes like this."

The Court was also informed that an order had been passed on November 13, 2022, by the Chairman of the Bar Council of India, placing under suspension, the office-bearers and members of the executive committees of five district bar associations of Odisha for their role in encouraging the strike. The counsel appearing on behalf of the officer-bearers implored the Bench to hold the suspension order in abeyance till the next hearing.

However, the Bench refusing to be swayed by the appeal, said, "There is absolutely no question of putting the order on hold. We want more suspensions, in fact. That is what we have directed the Bar Council." Justice Kaul added, "If by day after, everything is not called off, inform the Chairman of the Bar Council of India to suspend all office-bearers of district bar associations."

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar also pointed out, "I have been told that every fourth Saturday, there is a continuous boycott. Now, five districts are demanding five benches of the Orissa High Court. This simply cannot go on. They give an undertaking, but every time, they go back and violate the undertaking."

The Bench observed, "The conduct of many associations and of lawyers have been far from satisfactory. We were compelled to pass orders earlier and there are undertakings before us that there would not be a repeat of the issue of lawyers abstaining from work. This abstention naturally includes any part-time abstention in a day or for the whole day." The Chief Justice and the administrative judges of the High Court, the Bench further noted, have convened back-to-back meetings with all members of the bar association of the state, as have the district judges. "But, the members of the bar associations do not even participate," the bench recorded in the order with dismay.

"Members of the bar association of other districts, not only of Western Odisha, on occasions, have not participated in regular court proceedings," the Court observed. The counsel for the Odisha Bar Council confirmed that as many as twenty district bars had boycotted court work.

The bench noted in the order, "While we appreciate the steps taken by the Chairman of the Bar Council of India in pursuance of the duties that he has, further steps would be required by all the other associations also if they do not fall in line. We expect full working by all the bar associations by day after tomorrow, failing which, the Bar Council of India will proceed further with similar actions as brought before the Chairman's order against all office-bearers of the remaining bar associations. We are putting all the bar associations and its office-bearers to notice that non-compliance will invite proceedings from this Court for contempt, the Bar Council of India will be expected to take action for suspension and cancellation of the licenses of the lawyers, and any further step in this behalf."

This is not the first time that the apex court has forced striking lawyers back to work in Odisha. Earlier, in 2020, another Bench headed by Justice Kaul had directed the Bar Council of India and the Odisha Bar Council to take appropriate actions against advocates who had abstained from court work, for breach of their duties and obstruction of the judicial process. The reason for the agitation has largely remained the same. Now, as per reports, the lawyers have claimed that although a comprehensive proposal for setting up of a permanent bench in Western Odisha was requested by the Centre, the state government has made no attempts to furnish such a proposal.

Case Title

M/s PLR Projects Private Limited v. Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and Ors. [Diary No. 33859-2022]