Protest against proposed changes to Advocates Act

District courts lawyers staged a protest in the court complex here on Saturday against the draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which proposes sweeping changes in the definitions of what a legal practitioner and a law graduate mean.

Niranjan Verma, a sitting member of the HP Bar Council, termed the draft Bill as an attack on the freedom and dignity of lawyers, calling the proposals an attempt to suppress their voices. He said, “The heads of all Bar associations in Himachal will meet in Shimla on February 25 and constitute a coordination committee, which will spearhead the protests till the Bill is withdrawn.”

The Centre plans to amend the Advocates Act, 1961, by making sweeping changes in the definitions of what a legal practitioner and a law graduate mean.

According to the draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, a law graduate means a person who has obtained a bachelor’s degree in law of three or five years or such other duration as prescribed, by any centre of legal education or university established by law or a college affiliated to any university and recognised by the Bar Council of India.