It's time to protect our lawyers

The Bar Council of India's initiative to draft an Advocates Protection Act is a welcome step

The Bar Council of India (BCI) recently nominated a seven-member committee to frame a draft 'Advocates Protection Act' to ensure "protection and safety of lawyers across the country."

In its resolution, the BCI's general council noted that frequent and often violent physical attacks on members of the advocates' fraternity are "extremely distressing" and a "severe threat and attack on the independence of the Bar."

The council said lawyers would "take the recourse of a countrywide agitation" if the Union and state governments do not heed the issue.

The resolution adopted by the BCI is significant as it is a statutory body established under section 4 of the Advocates Act of 1961 and is responsible for regulating legal practice in India. It elects its members from the lawyers' community, and they represent the Indian Bar. This resolution comes amidst an increasingly hostile environment for lawyers in India.

Contrary to public perception, lawyers are not exempt from workplace violence. They regularly face dangers from opposing parties, interested parties, their clients, and even the entire system.

In a recent incident in Telangana, hired killers followed Advocate Vaman Rao and his wife on their way to Hyderabad, blocked their vehicle and stabbed them to death in the middle of the road. Rao had filed court cases against two local leaders in his village from the ruling party to prevent them from encroaching on public land.

The couple's murder is not an isolated incident. Such incidents have taken place in several parts of the country, which is worrisome. Justice delivery dispensation is dependent on three important actors – judiciary, police and lawyers.

Judges and police personnel have adequate protection granted to them. However, lawyers, the crucial link between the two, do not get any security. Lawyers are officers of the court who help the justice delivery system to dispense its duties effectively. As a result, they are almost always in the line of fire.

Women lawyers, for instance, are at a higher risk than their male counterparts. In addition, a young lawyer with relatively fewer years of experience at the bar will likely face more danger. Similarly, lawyers who deal with violent clients and emotionally charged cases face the risk of being attacked more.

Lawyers practising in district courts in small towns and villages, far from media and police attention, fear more for their lives than those practising in cities before the higher courts. These threats are not just physical but also psychological and emotional. These can and do extend to situations of violent confrontations, inappropriate communication, online abuse, and even causing damage to private property.

The theoretical explanations behind such threats and violence against lawyers can be many. But three warrant our attention here. First, the stigma and prejudice against the profession persist among the general public. Secondly, the vast expectations that clients today have from their lawyers in a technologically driven world where information on legal processes is freely and abundantly available to them on their screens and their fingertips, and thirdly, the way the media promotes misconceptions against lawyers.

This problem of threat to lawyers safety is not unique to India. Several other countries have grappled with this and continue to do so. The US, for instance, has experienced shootings, bombings and arson attacks in and around courthouses.

Earlier this year, the European Committee on Legal Co-operation, an intergovernmental body of the Council of Europe, published a feasibility study – a legal instrument to protect lawyers against harassment, threats and attacks in the jurisdiction of the European Union. It examined the problems faced by lawyers and the level of protection offered. It found that the status quo is inadequate in the given circumstances and that new measures are the need of the hour if the Rule of Law has to be protected. Today there are calls for a dedicated European Convention to protect lawyers.

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations had passed an important resolution in 2017 on the need to incorporate robust language against reprisals and strengthen the implementation of immunities to ensure the independence of lawyers. It also noted that "States should respect and protect lawyers who promote and defend human rights defenders". Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights also lays down that every person has a "Right to Fair Trial". For the fulfilment of such a provision, a lawyer's independence and safety is a prerequisite.

The BCI's resolution is, therefore, a welcome step. However, the draft Advocates Protection Act must incorporate every single issue, such as the nature and forms of violence, an inclusive definition of "workplace", and ways to tackle the negative perception in popular media today. The committee must take the views of all district and state bar associations, do a thorough threat analysis, engage in comparative benchmarking with other foreign jurisdictions, and then draft the proposed legislation.

(Anurag is an Impact Fellow at Global Governance Initiative. He is from the National Law University, Visakhapatnam. Priyanka Singh is from the National Law University, Visakhapatnam.)