After a successful nationwide two-day strike (July11-12), the Bar Council of India (BCI) has reiterated its resolve to intensify protest against the Higher Education and Research (HER) Bill, 2011. “We achieved a grand success by calling a two-day strike exhibiting our strength and serious objection to the Bill. After seeing our strength and unity, we hope our demands to withdraw this Bill will be met. If not we will intensify our protest,” said BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra at a press conference in Ahmed-abad on July 13. BCI is against inclusion of legal education in the HER Bill, 2011.
If the HRD ministry doesn’t meet its demand, “thousands of lawyers from across the country will sit in dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on the open-ing day of the monsoon session of Parliament,” warned Mishra, adding that “from there we will march to Parliament and demand withdrawal of the Bill”.
Introduced in the Rajya Sabha last year, the Bill proposes to establish a national commission which will regulate university education, including legal, vocational, technical, medical and professional education.