SHILLONG: Members of the Shillong Bar Association (SBA) on Friday joined the Bar Council of India (BCI) protest against the proposed Advocates’ Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that bars advocates from holding agitation and makes them liable to compensate litigants if they go on strike.
SBA members gathered outside the Bar Association in the afternoon and burned copies of the proposed report of the Law Commission which has made recommendations for amendments to the Advocates’ Act.
Speaking to reporters, SBA general secretary Kishore Chandra Gautam said the Law Commission of India wants to make certain drastic changes to the Advocates’ Act which is unacceptable.
“Besides changing the definition of ‘misconduct’, and making proposals to bar lawyers from going on strike, they (the Law Commission) wants to induct members, who are not lawyers, into the disciplinary committee of the BCI,” Gautam said.
He informed that if the proposal is taken forward, lawyers across the country will go for further agitation.
Earlier on Thursday, the BCI had termed the proposed amendment to the Advocates Act as “utterly regressive” and said that its right place is not the Parliament but the dustbin.
