Advocates of Dehradun Bar Association protested at the court campus on Friday, opposing the proposed amendments by the law Commission in the Advocates Act. The protesters torched the copy of the proposed amendment bill while shouting slogans against the Central Government. They warned that they would intensify the agitation in the coming days unless the Centre withdraws the amendment. Notably, the Bar Council of India (BCI), the apex body of the advocates, gave the nationwide cease-work call, dubbing the recommendations as detrimental to their interests.
The judicial work in the courts was paralysed on Friday as the lawyers based in Dehradun abstained from work. Advocates led by Dehradun Bar Association president Rajeev Sharma gathered at the campus and then burnt the copy of the proposed amendment bill of the Advocates Act.
A protester and senior advocate Alok Ghildiyal said that the proposed amendments by the law Commission in the Advocates Act were "draconian, anti-lawyer, unconstitutional, undemocratic and anti-people.” “The recommendations of the law Commission are against the legal profession and legal education of the country is in danger because of this proposed bill," he said.
"The regulation and control of legal profession and the proposal to hand over legal education to the non-lawyers are against the interests of the profession. The advocates will have to face disciplinary proceedings to be controlled by people not connected with the legal profession if the amendment is cleared," he added.