Madhya Pradesh High Court Discharges Contempt Proceedings Against State Bar Council After Its Unconditional Apology For 2023 Lawyers' Strike

While deciding a suo-moto PIL, the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court discharged the contempt proceedings against the State Bar Council for calling a strike last year.

The court did so after taking on record the affidavit filed by the Chairman of State Bar Council as per which the state bar council took responsibility for the strike and also accepted their unconditional apology.

The division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain in its November 21 order observed, “In view of unconditional apology offered by the contemnors, we hereby discharge the contemnors from the contempt proceedings.”

The order was passed in a 2023 suo motu public interest litigation petition which was initiated as a result of the communication by the Chairman of the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh asking the entire lawyer community in the State to abstain from court work from March 23, 2023.

A large number of Advocates in the State had gone on strike against a policy of the administration of the High Court to dispose of long-pending cases in district courts. The advocates were protesting against the 25 Debt Scheme introduced by the High Court in October 2021 to tackle the issue of old cases which have been pending for many years and have not been taken up. As per this policy, district courts are required to identify and dispose of the 25 oldest cases in each court quarterly.

In its order March 24, 2023, the court had observed, “…the duty of a lawyer is to uphold the rule of law. It is he, who fights for the legal rights of a litigant. There are almost 20 Lakh cases pending in the district court judiciary and more than 4 Lakh cases pending in the High Court. Every effort is being made by the Hon'ble High Court to reduce the pendency. The action of the respondent No.1 (Chairman, State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh) seeking to abstain from court work is opposed to the well-established principles of the legal profession. The respondent No.1 cannot call for an illegal act to be done.”

The court in its March 2023 order had directed all the advocates to resume their court work with immediate effect and stated that if any advocate is found not complying with the order or preventing any other lawyer from attending the court, he will face proceedings Contempt of Courts Act. The Court further directed the Registry to ensure that all the respondents are served with the notice of the petition as well as the aforesaid directions.

On November 21, the high court took on record an affidavit filed by Chairman, State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh on behalf of all the contemnors whereby it was stated that the respondents/contemnors are "committed to the rule of law and will always protect the dignity and decorum" of the High Court and other Courts and "seek unconditional apology".

"It is also stated that the respondents and the present Chairman most respectfully submits that as the call for strike was made by the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh so the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh takes responsibility for the said strike," the November 21 order notes.

The Bar Council also made a request for withdrawal of the contempt proceedings pending against all the respondents i.e. Members of the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh and other Office Bearers of all Bar Associations of Madhya Pradesh.

Thus, the court accepted the unconditional apology offered by the contemnors and discharged the contempt proceedings.

The writ petition was accordingly disposed of.

Case Title: In Reference (Suo Motu) v. Chairman, State Bar Council of MP and Others

Writ Petition No. 7295 of 2023

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