Mumbai: Lawyers across the city staged a dharna at Azad Maidan on Friday to protest against the amendments proposed by the Law Commission to the Advocates Act.
Advocate Pravin Ranpise, secretary of the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council, said, “Except the Bar at the Bombay High Court, all the other Bar associations in the city were on strike. Advocates burnt the proposed Bill outside court premises during lunch hour and chanted slogans like ‘ Vakil Ekta Zindabad ’ (long live lawyers’ unity). We oppose the report of the Law Commission and we don’t want the Bill to be put before the Standing Committee for approval.”
On March 31, lawyers had abstained from work at the Bombay High Court and the lower courts following a call for a token strike by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. It had termed the proposed amendments as “undemocratic and anti-lawyers”. The Bar Council of India (BCI), too, had called the amendments draconian, saying they would create fear in the mind of advocates about the “functioning of disciplinary committee”. The Advocates Association of Western India had also passed a resolution in support of the BCI’s call.
Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had said advocates must understand their responsibilities and duties.
