The BCI has called for a national strike on Monday, 16 March, to protest the “ghastly and brutal killing of a lawyer by the police officials in court premises” at Allahabad yesterday.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has called for a national strike on Monday, 16 March, to protest the “ghastly and brutal killing of a lawyer by the police officials in court premises” at Allahabad yesterday, according to a BCI press release.

A police sub-inspector allegedly shot dead one and injured another lawyer on Wednesday at the district court, after an argument with a group of lawyers having allegedly threatened to “thrash” him after a heated argument, reported the TImes of India and others.

The release by BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, as first published by Bar & Bench, stated:

In order to show their solidarity, the lawyers throughout the country shall abstain from attending their works on 16th March 2015. This decision is taken after consultation with the Chairman of all the State Bar Councils.

Bar Council of India demands that the culprit should be immediately arrested; Judicial enquiry should be concluded within two months positively. State Govt. should make an Ex-gratia payment of Rs. 50 lakhs to the family of lawyer.

In 2002 the Supreme Court had severely criticised lawyers’ propensity to go on strike, holding that only a one-day strike over “issues involving dignity, integrity, independence of the bar and judiciary” could ever be “overlooked by courts, who may turn a blind eye for that one day”.