Rajasthan High Court seeks BCI, government inputs on protection of lawyers from violence, threats

The Rajasthan High Court recently sought replies from the Union government, the State government, and the Bar Council of India (BCI) before it takes a call on guidelines that it may issue for the protection of advocates from violence, harassment, and threats. [Prahlad Sharma v UOI & Ors].Acting Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Anil Kumar Upman was dealing with a petition for the framing of an appropriate legislation for the protection of advocates, which has been pending since 2020..Notably, the bench also took judicial notice of the recent murder of a lawyer in the State, which had led to wide spread agitation..The Court observed that after the 2020 petition was filed, the State drafted a Bill to address the protection of advocates. The Additional Advocate General also informed the Court that, the matter was going to be considered at the top executive level soon. .The Court was also informed that after considering the difficulty of advocates, particularly the harassment, threat or violence faced while discharging their duties as officers of the Court, the BCI had also taken initiative in the matter and framed a Bill. This Bill was forwarded to the Union Law Ministry, the Court noted. .However, neither Bill has been enacted as a law as of yet. "We, thus, find that though the grievance of the Members of the Bar has been taken up for consideration at different level, but till date no legislation has come," the Court observed. .As such, the petitioner's counsel urged the Court to issue guidelines till an appropriate legislation is framed by the legislature.The Court proceeded to seek inputs from the government authorities, at both the State and Central level, as well as the BCI and Rajasthan Bar Council on this aspect. To this end, the BCI was impleaded as an additional respondent in the matter and issued notice returnable in two weeks. ."The Bar Council of India may also come out with appropriate suggestions in the matter towards framing of guidelines," the Court added, before posting the case for further consideration on March 20..Observing that the respondent-authorities had not filed sufficient replies in the case, the Court also emphasised that these authorities must file their reply positively by the next hearing. ."The steps contemplated in future on the part of the respondents would be clear only from their reply," the Court observed..The matter will be taken up next on March 20..[Read Order]