Supreme Court Asks Members Of MP District Bar Association To File Unconditional Apology For Lawyers' Strike

The bench CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was hearing the challenge to the Madhya Pradesh High Court order, which debarred 10 members of the Seoni District Bar Association from appearing in any court for a period of one month and contesting elections to the Bar Association or Bar Council of the state.

During the hearings today, the Counsel for the petitioners informed the bench that the call for strike was mainly in light of the alleged unilateral decision of the state government to allot a new site for the District Court Complex without taking the District Bar Association into confidence.

The CJI, considering that the petitioners were debarred for appearing in Court for 30 days and banned from contesting elections for 3 years, verbally said : 

" You (petitioners) should not have done that...file a written apology"

The bench proceeded to record the following order : 

"The petitioner states they will file a written unconditional apology within a period of 10 days, relist in the week commencing 5th of May"

The Court also allowed the interim stay on the impugned decision to continue. 

Notably, the bench led by then CJI, Justice DY Chandrachud , onApril 10, 2024, stayed the Madhya Pradesh High Court order.

The interim order of the Division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra, came as a consequence of the senior members of the Bar Association declaring to hold a strike from 18-20th March 2024. The order was passed in light of the previous decision of the High Court in Praveen Pandey v. The State of Madhya Pradesh & Ors, prohibiting lawyers' strikes. It may be noted that the interim order came during the hearing of a Suo Moto PIL over the issue of lawyers going on strike.

Case Details : RAVI KUMAR GOLHANI vs. THE CHAIRMAN, STATE BAR COUNCIL OF MADHYA PRADESH Diary No.- 14523 - 2024