Lawyers go on strike against service tax proposal; demand rollback

Lawyers on Thursday observed a strike in the Delhi high court and all the six district court complexes in the national capital region to protest the finance bill proposing to levy a 10 per cent tax on the fee charged by them for legal services.

"We are observing strike seeking a rollback of the proposal to levy service tax from us," additional solicitor general and president of Delhi high court bar association (DHCBA) A S Chandhiok said. He himself was manning one of the entrances of the high court, ensuring that no lawyers appear in any courtroom.

In a letter to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the DHCBA said, "Chartered accountants, cost accountants and company secretaries continue to enjoy exemption from service tax. Of late, doctors too have been saved from the service tax net. The proposal thus suffers from arbitrariness and discrimination as well."

Rajiv Khosla, president of the Delhi bar association, claimed the strike was successful in all the six district courts. "Lawyers are not appearing in any of the courts and we will give our memorandum to the finance minister and the law minister," he said.

Litigants had a tough time as the courts were not conducting any judicial business due to the strike.

Earlier, a coordination panel of various Delhi bar associations and the Rajasthan bar council had decided to observe a day-long strike on the service tax issue.

The coordination panel claimed that the strike in the adjoining states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan was also complete.

Criticising the finance ministry's proposal in the legal practitioners bill 2010 for imposing a service tax on lawyers, Khosla said, "Instead of imposing an extra tax on lawyers, the centre should make efforts to end corruption."