Law Ministry withdraws Advocates Amendment Bill: Lawyers’, Bar Council’s key concerns

The Union Ministry of Law and Justice retracted the draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Bar Council of India (BCI) today (February 23) in the wake of lawyers’ strike and protests by the latter.

The draft Bill was released to the public by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice on 13 February, for public comments. It contained provisions that would give the Center control over the functioning of the BCI, regulate the admission of foreign attorneys, and restrict attorneys’ freedom of protest.

Lawyers in the courts of Delhi had gone on strike earlier this month. “The proposed unjust, unfair and biased Bill was unanimously rejected, ” say several circulars issued by the coordination committees of each district court bar association worries about the associations of lawyers' independence

Setion 4 of the Advocates Act, 1961 establishes the “Bar Council of India” and gives it wide jurisdiction over the legal profession (including admitting lawyers, resolving lawyer misconduct cases, and more).

An attorney's protest as "misconduct"

One of the new clauses most incensed the lawyers was Clause 35 A which said: No association of advocates, or member of an association of advocates or an advocate, either individually or in association, shall call for a boycott or abstinence from the work of the courts or cause obstruction in any form in the functioning of the courts or in the courts premises.

It said that participation in a strike was permissible “only when it does not affect the administration of justice, such as strikes intended to draw attention to legitimate grievances about professional conduct, working conditions or administrative matters. ”

Any violation would amount to misconduct and Section 35 would apply, he said. “A right to protest is well established and to bring it within the meaning of misconduct is quite atrocious, ” said advocate KC Mittal, 52, a practicing lawyer for the past 32 years and former chairman of the Bar Council of Delhi. “How can our fundamental rights to protest be allowed as an exception... the exception should be given as to when we can’t protest, ” he challenged the exception.

An advocate’s name can also be struck off a state Bar Council’s rolls on his death, on his request or on his being found guilty of “serious misconduct or causing obstruction in the functioning of the court, ” says Section 26A, “Power to remove names from rolls. ” The serious misconduct condition is a new addition. Neither the draft Bill nor the Advocates Act defines “misconduct” or “loss.