RECONCILING ETHICS AND THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION: A VINDICATION OF THE PROHIBITION ON LAWYERS’ RIGHT TO STRIKE

The right to strike has not been recognized as a fundamental right by the Supreme Court of India and remains a legal right. Our judicial position is definitively clear on maintaining the prohibition. Courts have held that the freedom of speech and of association under our Constitution cannot possibly include strikes and boycotts by lawyers. This paper seeks to expose the conflation of the ‘right to protest’, and the right to strike/boycott, with only the latter being impermissible. Bringing in the ineluctable ethical ramifications of the legal profession being placed at a higher pedestal, the responsibility that lawyers have cannot be overlooked. Even so, this paper concedes that serious reform is needed to address the concerns of advocates. Most strikes have ended up causing immense damage to the justice delivery system in their application. Notwithstanding existing problems, our legal ethos demands the adoption of means that are not disruptive.