Lawyers in J&K are divided over the SC order on forming the J&K Bar Council.
An unusual flurry of activity is being witnessed in court premises across the Kashmir Valley as lawyers discuss the formation of the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Council. While Jammu lawyers prepare for the Bar Council elections, likely to be held in June, their counterparts in the Valley are apprehensive. Many read into the bar council election, being held for the first time under the Advocates Act, 1961, an extension of another Union law to the state and are worried over how the formation of the council would affect lawyers’ political activism in Kashmir. Last month, while hearing a petition by Bhim Singh, president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party, the Supreme Court ordered the holding of elections.
The 1961 law was introduced in J&K in 1986, but has not been implemented so far, with the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir functioning as the de facto bar council. In his petition filed in 2013, Bhim Singh had asked for the setting up of a bar council. Earlier, the central government had declined to notify the direction of the Bar Council of India to hold elections and form the state bar council, stating the situation in Kashmir was not conducive to it.
“The J&K Bar Council has a role in lawyers’ welfare,” says Bhim Singh. “It will have 21 members and I believe each district will be represented. No one should object to its formation.”
This story is from the March 27, 2017 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 27, 2017 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Will Hindutva Survive After 2024?
The idealogy of Hindutva faces a challenge in staying relevant
A Terrific Tragicomedy
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a tender and extravagant sketch of apocalypse
Trapped in a Template
In the upcoming election, more than the Congress, the future of the Gandhi family is at stake
IDEOLOGY
Public opinion will never be devoid of ideology: but we shall destroy ourselves without philosophical courage
The Many Kerala Stories
How Kerala responded to the propaganda film The Kerala Story
Movies and a Mirage
Previously portrayed as a peaceful paradise, post-1990s Kashmir in Bollywood has become politicised
Lights, Cinema, Politics
FOR eight months before the 1983 state elections in undivided Andhra Pradesh, a modified green Chevrolet van would travel non-stop, except for the occasional pit stops and food breaks, across the state.
Cut, Copy, Paste
Representation of Muslim characters in Indian cinema has been limited—they are either terrorists or glorified individuals who have no substance other than fixed ideas of patriotism
The Spectre of Eisenstein
Cinema’s real potency to harness the power of enchantment might want to militate against its use as a servile, conformist propaganda vehicle
The Thalaiva Factor
At atime when Bollywood Is churning out propagandist narratives, south cinema, too, has Stories to tell