10/08/2013
Union law minister Kapil Sibal's meeting with the statutory Bar Council of India members and other Bar leaders to discuss a issues ranging from judicial reforms to welfare measures for lawyers, was a damp squib on Saturday.
At the end of the meeting, the Bar Council of India (BCI) went to the extent of describing the exercise as 'waste of time' and totally unsatisfactory.
The meeting had serious issues on agenda though. It was to take up such hot topics as judicial reforms, use of IT tools to improve the functioning of Bar Council and Bar associations, measures to improve case disposals, infrastructure and welfare measures for lawyers in the country.
A total of 12 chairpersons of the State Bar Councils and 10 presidents of various Bar associations in high courts, besides members of Bar Councils, had come from various parts of the country to attend this meeting, said S Prabakaran, convenor and spokesperson of the BCI.
However, when the meeting began, Kapil Sibal made it clear that the meeting would discuss the proposed national judicial appointments bill. According to the BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, the members had told the ministers in one voice that they were opposed to the Bill in its present form. Demanding a direct role for Bar council members and Bar leaders in the selection of judicial officers, Mishra had told the meeting that people and lawyers would not agree for changes in the existing collegium system of appointment of judges.
"The meeting, in fact, could not resolve anything," a statement of the BCI said, adding: "When presidents of Bar associations and chairmen of Bar Councils demanded fund for welfare of lawyers, the union law minister expressed his inability to do so. He asked lawyers' bodies to approach the finance minister for relief. A majority of participants expressed their displeasure on this issue. They reiterated that without the involvement of the Bar Councils and the Bar Council of India, the process of appointment of judges cannot be changed. Lawyers are not going to tolerate the replacement of the existing collegium system with the proposed commission, without the representation of Bar Councils and associations."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Meeting-with-law-minister-Sibal-a-waste-of-time-says-Bar-Council/articleshow/21745447.cms