Patna, (Bihar Times): It took only a few hours for the
high court to intervene and get the proposed doctors’
strike called off on December 6 last. But it took
about a month in case with the strike by lawyers.
Over 80,000 lawyers across Bihar on Wednesday evening
suspended their indefinite strike against steep hike
in court fees after a three-judge bench headed by
acting Chief Justice C K Prasad and Justice Barin
Ghosh and Justice J N Singh ordered an interim stay on
its operationalization pending disposal of a Public
Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the measure.
While the 25,000 odd High Court lawyers had been on
strike since March 31 the 55,000-odd lawyers of the
different civial courts had been abstaining work since
March 14.
According to the Yogesh Chandra Verma, convenor of the
coordination committee of the three associations of
the lawyers of the High Court “We have decided to
suspend our agitation following the High Court putting
on hold operationalization of the Bihar government’s
order of steep and irrational hike that would have
made seeking justice too costly for the common man.
Earlier on Wednesday, a special three-judge special
bench stayed the state government order while hearing
a PIL filed by a Muzaffarpur lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha,
who had challenged the step, saying though the per
capita income in Bihar was lower than most states, the
court fees as the result of the hike was more than
most developed states. The petitioner had said the
poor in Bihar would not be able to get justice for
want of money.
The bench ruled that “the court fees with regard to
all cases in the High Court, subordinate courts and
tribunals would exist as prior to the government order
until the court disposes of the PIL.” The court fixed
May 16 for next hearing of the case after Advocate
General P K Sahi told it that a special ministerial
committee headed by deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar
Modi was looking into the matter and that it would
hold its next meeting with the agitating lawyers on
April 10.
