Higher Education Bill: Lawyers to strike work Wednesday

With HRD Minister Kapil Sibal being adamant on not excluding legal education from the ambit of the Higher Education and Research Bill, the lawyers across the country have decided to abstain from the court work on July 11 and July 12.

The Bar Council of India, in a statement on Monday, said Sibal’s letter to some of the members of the Council was not only wrong and misleading, but also an unsuccessful effort to create confusion among lawyers.

 A delegation of Bar Council have met Sibal twice to resolve the issue, but the minister was adamant on the Higher Education and Research Bill, Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill, Foreign Educational Institutions Bill and National Law Schools Bill.

“By introducing these Bills, the government also wants to make the entry of foreign educational institutions in the country easy and various regulatory authorities, including the Bar Council of India, are proposed to be made virtually defunct. Such a step of the government could be quite dangerous for the future generation and common man would be the ultimate sufferer,”  the statement said.

Sibal tried to allay the fears of the Bar Council of India and wrote letters to its members inviting them for a meeting.  The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Sibal in December last year.

The Bill seeks to establish the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) to facilitate determination and maintenance of standards of higher education and research in all areas except agricultural education.