Jammu, Feb 11: A group of Jammu lawyers have filed a Public Interest Litigation before the state High Court at Jammu seeking direction to the state government to constitute State Bar Council under Advocates Act, 1961.
 Presently the powers of the State Bar Council, a statutory body mandatory to be constituted under Advocates Act, were being exercised by the state High Court. In all other states all the matters, including welfare measures and complaints against advocates, are being exclusively dealt by the Bar Councils.
 The Public Interest Litigation has been filed by two young lawyers Vishal Mahajan and Manav Sanmotra.
 A Division Bench of the Court, comprising First Puisne Judge Justice Virender Singh and Justice Hasnain Massodi,  after hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi for the petitioners, AAG Gagan Basotra for the state and Senior Adv AV Gupta for the State High Court, directed state to file response to the petition within four weeks.
 The petitioners have submitted  that  all the states have their State Bar Councils headed by the Elected Body of Advocates of their respective states. However, in State of J&K, the High Court is exercising the powers of State Bar Council under section 58 of the Advocates Act, 1961 with effect from January 31, 1974.
 It is further submitted in the PIL that the Advocates have been deprived of their legal and statutory rights by taking away their rights for constitution of State Bar Council, which enables the Advocates to have their representation in the Bar Council of India.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST