Lawyers of Himachal Pradesh High Court and district courts of the state abstained from their courts on Thursday to protest proposed amendment in lawyer’s act.
The lawyers of the High Court are observing two days’ strike, while lawyers at district courts are on strike for the last three days , against the amendment.
The Central government constituted committee has submitted a draft of proposed amendments to the Lawyers Act of 1961, to the parliament.
Lawyers of Himachal Pradesh High Court marched to Raj Bhawan Shimla today under the banner of HP High Court Bar Association and submitted a memorandum to the Central government through HP Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla.
The lawyers are terming the proposed amendment in the lawyers act as ‘attack on the independence and autonomy of the legal profession and accusing the Central government of taming their profession’.
“The lawyers are opposed to striking down section 35 of the Act and proposal to make a law for banning strikes by lawyers and proposal to suspend license of any lawyer on complaint against a lawyer”.
Former member of Bar Council of India, Dash Raj Sharma said, “Several proposed amendment in the Act like banning strike by lawyers, presumed culpability of a lawyer in any complaint of misconduct against him, are against the very spirit of our law; moreover with the amendment many more government nominees will be added to the disciplinary committee, giving the government upper hand in taking action against a lawyer.”
“By amending the verification rule the power will be given to the disciplinary committee for suspending a lawyer from six months to 2 years; even speaking loud in the court and making a complaint against a government official would be construed as misconduct,” he says.
He said, “Independence of the legal profession and even federal structure of India is at stake and lawyers are committed to fight to protect the legal profession to thwart the Central government’s move to tame them.”
