Days After Firing in Delhi’s Saket Court, Bar Council of India Requests Union Govt for Effective Law for Lawyers’ Protection

Amid rising concerns over the safety of lawyers, the Bar Council of India has passed a resolution requesting the union government to frame an effective law for “the protection of lives, interests, and privilege of advocates and their families”. This development comes days after yet another shooting inside a court complex, this time in Delhi’s Saket district court. In a press release, the apex regulatory body revealed that this resolution was taken at a joint meeting of all the state bar councils with the Bar Council of India, under the chairpersonship of senior advocate and BCI chief Manan Kumar Mishra. Besides urging the centre to frame a law for the protection of lawyers, the bar councils have also demanded the payment of appropriate compensation in the event of any attack on an advocate or their family members, or any bodily harm caused to them or their family, and the framing of an effective law to that end. In the same joint meeting of the Bar Council of India and the state bar councils, it has been unanimously resolved that the ‘sensitive’ issue of legally recognising same-sex marriage be left to the legislature, which is “reflective of the will of the people”. Not only this, the resolution has also claimed that “every responsible and prudent citizen of the country is worried about the future of his-her children” now that the Indian Supreme Court is seized of the question of marriage equality, and that allegedly “99.9 per cent of the people” are opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage. Apart from opposing the same-sex marriage pleas that are currently being heard by a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, the bar councils have also discussed and adopted resolutions with regard to uniform rules for the enrolment fee, approval of the Bar Council of India Rules for Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2022, the sets of criteria for being a voter in the state bar councils, for being a member of the state bar councils, or for being a member of the Bar Council of India, and the issue of the resolution of lawyers’ strikes. In view of the security of not only advocates but also judges and litigants in courts across the county, the Supreme Court has recently directed all high courts to submit their responses on the progress with respect to the installation of CCTV cameras in court premises. A bench of Justices Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta was hearing a batch of petitions seeking directions with respect to special measures to enhance the security of court premises in all Indian courts, as well as the people involved in various capacities with the justice delivery system.

Days After Firing in Delhi’s Saket Court, Bar Council of India Requests Union Govt for Effective Law for Lawyers’ Protection

Awstika Das

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