The Bar Council of India (BCI) has constituted a seven-member committee to draft an Advocates' Protection Bill.
The General Council of the Bar Council of India, in its meeting held on 10.06.2021has discussed about the frequent and often violent physical attacks on members of Advocates fraternity in several part of country and has decided to constitute a 7 Member Committee to draft the Advocates’ Protection Bill.
As a result of the increasing incidents of attacks of Advocates, the BCI has decided that a Committee be constituted to frame a Draft of "The Advocates Protection Act" to ensure adequate protection to members of the legal fraternity so that they can carry on their duties as officers of the court, fearlessly without having to worry about their and their family's safety.
The Council has nominated the following members to be part of the Committee:-
1. Mr. S. Prabakaran, Sr. Advocate, Vice-Chairman, Bar Council of India;
2. Mr. Debi Prasad Dhal, Sr. Advocate, Executive Chairman, Bar Council of India Trust;
3. Mr. Suresh Chandra Shrimali, Co-Chairman, Bar Council of India;
4. Mr. Shailendra Dubey, Member, Bar Council of India;
5. Mr. A. Rami Reddy, Executive Vice-Chairman, Bar Council of India Trust;
6. Mr. Shreenath Tripathi, Member, Bar Council of India; and
7. Mr. Prashant Kumar Singh, Member, Bar Council of India.
The Bar Council of India has stated that,
“It was discussed and deliberated with anguish that it is extremely distressing to see that while it is the Advocates fraternity which provides justice to the citizens of the country; and for this reason they have to file and argue cases most of the time against the dreaded anti social elements and criminals, but the Advocates are themselves left without even bare minimum adequate protection against such elements. As a result of such cases, Advocates are often at the receiving end/target of such criminal and anti social elements.”
The Council members has discussed on various incidents taken place across the country against the Advocates and their family members.
The Council further noted that of late there has been an increase in the attacks on advocates. It was only recently that we were witness to a heinous and barbaric incident of daylight murder of Advocate Couple (Gattu Vaman Rao and his wife P. V. Nagamani) in Telengana.
The Council has also mentioned that the Karnataka Advocate had filed a PIL against custodial death in police station and some other cases against some leaders of the ruling party in Telangana and the horrific incident took us back to the days of anarchy and lawlessness and goondaraj.
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