RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan.11: Barring a section of government advocates, lawyers across the state continue to abstain from judicial work on the sixth consecutive day to protest against the court fee hike.
Jharkhand Bar Council chairman Rajendra Krishna said it will continue unless written words assuring reconsideration on the court fee hike decision come from the State government.
“Our demand is justified and we are in no mood to end our protest, “Krishna talking to Lagatar24.com at his office, said. Vice chairman of the council Rajesh Kumar Shukla was also present on the occasion.
Giving justification of the strike, Krishna said if the government does not think about reducing fees, getting justice for the poor will become difficult.
“When last time the court fee was hiked in 1995 fee for different petitions mentioned in the schedule -I used to range between Rs 2 to Rs 5, now the minimum fee has become Rs 20 to Rs 1000. Earlier, the maximum fee for a title suit was Rs 50,000 and now it has become Rs 3 lakh. Increase in fee for filing a title suit will only put poor farmers in trouble as they hardly have sufficient cash in their hand,” Krishna said.
Krishna said the government has not explained the basis on which the court fee has been hiked exorbitantly. “After the Bar Council filed a PIL in the court challenging the state government’s court fee hike, the state government constituted a committee of three secretaries. Though the committee observed that expenditure on the judicial process has increased by only 2.24 times, the government increased fees many times,” he said.
“The Government says that per capita income has increased by 5 times while money has devalued by six times but while deciding the court fee the government has ignored the fact and did not consider for the poor citizens of the sovereign country justice should be provided free of cost,” Krishna said.
Krishna said he had got information regarding a section of advocates appearing in the court defying the bar council’s decision and against them the council is going to take action. “Advocates appearing in the court defying the council’s decision will not be given facilities a bar council member is expected to get,” Krishna said.
Advocate General (AG) Rajiv Ranjan refused to comment on the merit of the subject.
“The matter of court fee hike is pending before the Jharkhand High Court and thus it will not be proper for me to comment on this,” AG Ranjan said. On the issue of strike, AG Ranjan said that he had ‘already declared it illegal on the basis of the Supreme Court order.’ On finding a solution, AG Ranjan said that he ‘would have found some way if someone from the council had come before him for a discussion on the matter.’
