It’s been a long time since the lawyers of Western Odisha have been demanding for a permanent High Court Bench in Western Odisha. For the past few years, these requests have been coming up in the form of applications and agitations. However, this time the agitation has been stretched too far where the lawyers went on a strike and did not appear in the courts for legal proceedings to be carried out.

While condemning such abstinence from work and taking strict actions against them as suspension of licenses, Say Kishan Kaul, J. stated,

“What is the core issue? That every district wants a High Court instead of a district court? How big is the state?" He added sarcastically, "Why not raise a demand for one High Court outside each house?" "It is nothing but a display of ego to demand that a High Court bench be constituted at your doorsteps. You can have district judiciary at your doorsteps, but not a High Court. This cannot be done. Odisha is not such a big state.”

 The Industrial Disputes act, 1947 has defined the term ‘strike’ under the section 2(q) as “a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry acting in combination or a concerted refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding, of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment.”. however, strikes are generally done by employees or workers in protest against the employer. On the other hand, legal profession carries a certain code of professional ethics as it is a noble profession.

The Supreme Court correctly stated in Krishnakant Tamrakar v. State of Madhya Pradesh[1] as follows:

“Every strike does irreparable harm to the judicial system, notably to plaintiffs. The right to strike is a fundamental right provided under the right to freedom of association (Part III) of the constitution, which allows a group of individuals who share a common interest to meet and assert their rights (Article 19 (c)). However, freedom of association is not an absolute right under Article 19, and it is subject to certain reasonable restrictions. As a result, whether lawyers have the right to strike is one of the most often questioned questions in the legal profession.

The Supreme Court and the High Courts have said categorically that the lawyer's strike is unlawful and those necessary measures must be taken to stem the rising trend of outstanding cases in India in various judgments.”