Proceedings at most of the courts in districts of Solapur, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Pune, Ratnagiri, Beed, Akola, Parbhani, Hingoli and Pusad, could not take-off, claimed BCI member Anil Singh.
In Mumbai, most of the 22,000-strong lawyers did not appear in Cooperative courts, Family courts, Labour courts, Central Administrative Tribunal, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal Magistrate courts, sessions courts and civil courts.
However, some lawyers did appear in the sessions courts in matters concerning bail and remand letters to ensure that their clients are not inconvenienced due to the stir.
The Bombay High Court wore a deserted look in the second half of the day though few Courts had assembled in the morning, including the bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar which passed certain orders. However, cases were later adjourned in almost all the Courts as lawyers did not appear.
Around 1.25 lakh lawyers, affiliated to Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, have announced their support to the nationwide agitation in protest of the proposed legislation, which they feel is aimed at taking away their autonomy in regulating legal profession and academic courses, said Singh, who is also the former chairman of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa.
The proposed Bill seeks to take away duties and functions of BCI and vests all these powers with a National Commission consisting of a few academicians, he added.
According to Singh, around 1.7 million lawyers from across the country are taking part in the two-day agitation.
The Bar Council of India is a statutory body created by Parliament to regulate and represent the Indian bar.
