Lawyers' strike in district courts, march to PM house tomorrow

The judicial work in six district courts in the capital came to a halt as a two-day strike over trial courts' pecuniary jurisdiction began today, with lawyers preparing for a protest march outside the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.
The coordination committee of all district courts bar associations has called the two-day strike against the delay in tabling in Parliament an amended bill to enhance the pecuniary jurisdiction of trial courts.
The lawyers termed the strike as "successful" saying no substantial work was taken up in any of the six trial courts - Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Patiala House, Rohini, Saket and Dwarka courts.

Advocate Mahesh Sharma, President of Shahdara Bar Association, said the lawyers have been repeatedly ditched by the law minister and other ministers who had given assurance that the Bill would be soon tabled and passed in Parliament.
"We had met Arun Jaitley, D V Sadananda Gowda and Ravi Shankar Prasad at BJP office and were assured that the Bill would be tabled and passed in the Parliament.
"But it was deliberately halted when it was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on March 4. This was a conspiracy and they have ditched us repeatedly," Sharma said.

Advocate R K Wadhwa, President of New Delhi Bar Association, said no judicial work was done in the courts today and the strike would continue tomorrow also.

He said a large number of lawyers would gather outside Patiala House courts tomorrow morning when they would march towards the Prime Minister's residence protesting against the central government.
"The advocates urge the Prime Minister that the bill for pecuniary jurisdiction of Rs two crore for district courts of Delhi should be re-tabled and passed in the ongoing Budget Session...," a release issued by the committee said.
The lawyers' body said the full bench of Delhi High Court had recommended to the central government that pecuniary jurisdiction be enhanced from the existing Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 crore, but nothing has been done till date.