Bar Council of India suspends ‘licenses of practice’ of 29 Odisha advocates for 18 months

Bhubaneswar: Bar Council of India suspended the ‘licenses of practice’ of 29 advocates today for a period of 18 months, amid an ongoing strike by lawyers demanding the establishment of separate High Court benches in their respective regions and opposing an arrest order by the Apex Court for agitation.

“As per the FIR No-0460, dated 30.11.2022 filed before PS-Town, District Sambalpur, the following Advocates were indulged in using un-parliamentary words for Judges, in pushing and pulling the police officials and obstructing the court proceedings,” an official communiqué stated.

The 29 advocates include Sureswar Mishra, Shib Diwan, Pramod Saraf, Satyanarayan Purohit, Srikant Panigrahi, Himansu Panigrahi, Mahendra Badhei, Anup Taria, Silu Mohapatra, Satyanarayan Panda, Prabin Singhdeo, Rabi Pujhari, Suraj Biswal, Chandrakanta Mohanty, Nabin Satpathy, Saroj Sahu, Manoranjan Dash, Manas Mishra, Sameer Mohapatra, Bandita Mishra, Rajib Satpathy, Basanta Mishra, Minaketan Bhoi, Ratan Agarwal, Bijetendra Pradhan, Suranjini Barik, Pradeep Bohidar, Babul Panda and Manoranjan Panda, press release issued by the Council in this regard mentioned.

A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court had warned to suspend en masse the members of 20 district bar associations in Odisha, in case they fail to call off their decision to boycott courts.

Taking a serious view of an application filed by the Orissa High Court demanding action to rein in the district bar association office bearers who had brought the functioning of courts in 20 districts to a standstill with their frequent strike calls, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan and Abhay S Oka recommended the Bar Council of India to take appropriate action against the district bar associations whose members were involved in protests.

It is pertinent to mention, state-wide protests by various lawyers’ associations are underway demanding relocation of Orissa High Court from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar and establishment of permanent benches in Sambalpur and Berhampur.