As though the unprecedented heatwave was not searing enough, the Madras High Court has set the advocate community afire with crucial changes to Section 34 of the Advocates Act introducing new conduct rules and punishments. The High Court has arrogated to itself powers of the Bar Council penalising lawyers for attempting to ‘browbeat’ judges or giving complaints to superiors about judges, leading to lifelong debarment from legal practice. As an interim measure courts can debar lawyers even before an inquiry.
These draconian rules fly in the face of the United Nations ‘Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers’ which stipulate certain minimum “guarantees for the functioning of lawyers”, N.G.R. Prasad, D. Nagasaila and V. Suresh, advocates practising at the Madras High Court, state in an article in The Hindu of 3 June 2016.
As though the unprecedented heatwave was not searing enough, the Madras High Court has set the advocate community afire with crucial changes to Section 34 of the Advocates Act introducing new conduct rules and punishments. The High Court has arrogated to itself powers of the Bar Council penalising lawyers for attempting to ‘browbeat’ judges or giving complaints to superiors about judges, leading to lifelong debarment from legal practice. As an interim measure courts can debar lawyers even before an inquiry.
These draconian rules fly in the face of the United Nations ‘Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers’ which stipulate certain minimum “guarantees for the functioning of lawyers”, N.G.R. Prasad, D. Nagasaila and V. Suresh, advocates practising at the Madras High Court, state in an article in The Hindu of 3 June 2016.
