Congress raises three ‘primary concerns’ on draft Advocates Bill

The Congress on Thursday expressed solidarity with lawyers protesting against the proposed amendments to Advocates Act, 1961. The Law Ministry had published the draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025 last week and sought suggestions and objections from the public.

The AICC Law, Human Rights and RTI Department in a statement raised “three primary concerns” over the proposed Bill. The first concern of the department is that instead of creating a “proper forum” to allow lawyers to raise grievances and issues, the proposed Bill takes away “lawyers’ rights to raise legitimate demands by way of a boycott or abstinence from work with the imposition of penal consequences”.

The second concern: the proposed Bill “allows for excessive government interference” in “composition, practice and procedure of professional regulatory bodies” and thereby “deviates from the principle of self-autonomy and self-independence”.