Madras High Court advocates to boycott courts tomorrow

Chennai: Advocates are up in arms against the recommendations of the Law Commission of India relating to the regulatory mechanism for the legal profession. To begin with, the Madras High Court advocates association and Women Lawyers' Association have called for a boycott of courts on April 7, demanding withdrawal of the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2017 (A bill to further amend the Advocates Act, 1961).

After analysing the prevailing situations including huge backlog of pending cases, loss of working days due to boycott of courts by advocates and more particularly the professional misconduct and considering the views and suggestions made by various stakeholders including Bar Council of India, the Law Commission in its 266th report has made several recommendations to regulate the legal profession and sent the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to the Union government recently for its consideration.

It all started with advocate Mahipal Singh Rana misbehaving in a civil court at Etah in Allahabad. On April 16, 2003, while a civil judge (senior division) was hearing a case, advocate Mahipal Singh Rana appeared in court and spoke an intemperate language. He also threatened the civil judge with dire consequences if he passes any order against his client in future. On May 13, 2003, the advocate again appeared in his court and insisted him to take up his case first and spoke in an agitated mood. Based on a letter received from the civil judge the High Court initiated contempt proceedings against him and convicted and sentenced him to undergo 2 months simple imprisonment. It also directed the state bar council to initiate appropriate proceedings against him for professional misconduct. On an appeal filed by him, the Supreme Court, after noticing that the bar council had not taken any steps, had upheld the conviction while expressing its anguish and observing that there was an urgent need to review the provisions of the Advocates Act, directed the Law Commission to go into all aspects, in consultation with all stakeholders and submit a report. It also requested the Union government to take appropriate steps in the light of the report of the Law Commission.

Accordingly, the law commissions after due deliberations filed its report making several recommendations to amend the Advocates Act. An amendment to section 2 of the Act to include in the "definition" clause for the term "advocates", an advocate carrying on practice in law with a law firm , by whatever name called, and a foreign lawyer registered under any law in a country outside India and recognized by the Bar Council of India,  substitution of new section for constitution of disciplinary committee of the Bar Council to include two person from amongst eminent persons from fields other than law, substitution of new section for disqualification for enrolment, substitution of new section for providing powers to remove names from rolls, advocates who was found guilty of serious misconduct or abstaining from courts work or causing obstruction in court's functioning and insertion of section for claiming compensation from advocates, an amendment to section 45 of the Act seeks to increase the penalty for persons illegally practicing in courts from 6 months imprisonment to 3 years with a fine of Rs 2 lakh.