Higher Education Bill: Lawyers to boycott work tomorrow

Lawyers of all the district courts here will abstain from work for two days beginning from Wednesday to oppose the government's proposed Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill, the Bar Council of Delhi said on Tuesday.

Lawyers of all the district courts here will abstain from work for two days beginning from Wednesday to oppose the government's proposed Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill, the Bar Council of Delhi said on Tuesday.

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The apex lawyers' body Bar Council of India had given a call for nation-wide protest against the proposed Bill.

The Bill, which seeks to regulate the legal education system in the country, has been facing strong opposition from the apex lawyer's body which has alleged that it is aimed at usurping the BCI's control over legal education.

Confirming their stand, officials of BCI and BCD have told PTI that they are going ahead with the two-day protest starting tomorrow.

"Lawyers across India will be abstaining from court work on July 11 and 12. We were compelled to take this stand due to the attitude of the HRD ministry," BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said.

However, the lawyers of the Delhi high court will not be abstaining from work on Wednesday as a full court reference is being held that day in favour of Justice Anil Kumar, who is retiring.

In his letter, Sibal had said that the Bill would not affect the powers and the functions of the BCI and the state bar councils.

Apart from the Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill, the apex lawyers' body is also opposing the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill 2010, the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill and the National Law Schools Bill.