Lawyers to go on statewide strike over lack of HC judges

The Gujarat high court advocates association (GHCAA) and Gujarat Bar Council lawyers will go on strike om Tuesday and Wednesday as central Law Ministry is not paying attention to the issue of 35 per cent posts of judges lying vacant in the HC.

Due to various administrative reasons and probably due to political reason, new appointments have not been made in Gujarat for many years. The situation has now reached crisis proportions the backlog of cases is growing.

According to the president of the GHCAA, Yatin Oza, 50% of the people do not get justice because of the shortage of judges. Oza stated that the proposals for appointments were cleared by the Supreme Court but still no progress has been achieved yet. He said the High Court was functioning with almost half of it’s sanctioned strength. The sanctioned strength is of 42 judges while we have only 23 judges, Oza said.

Earlier the Gujarat high court advocates association’s (GHCAA) had called for an indefinite strike from January 13, but livid with anger, the chief justice had cautioned them to refrain from such acts and wait till January 30, saying “I had requested you not to go on strike till January 30 as things would become easier after that but you did not have faith in my words. I had thought the Bar would not go on strike.”

Oza had then called an extraordinary meeting of the GHCAA and announced postponement of the strike till January 31 (by when word of a decision was expected from New Delhi).

But as there’s no fresh word from New Delhi on appointment of judges, the GHCAA is now all set to go on strike, initially for one day this week. A decision to file petition on this issue has also been taken.

While High Court lawyers will go on one-day strike, the another day will witness strike observed by all lawyers including the lawyers working in tribunals across the state.