District Bar Association protests against Draft Advocates Act Amendment Bill 2025

Kurnool: The members of Kurnool District Bar Association boycotted court proceedings on Friday and staged a protest against the Draft Advocates Act Amendment Bill 2025, proposed by the Modi government, demanding its immediate withdrawal.

Addressing the gathering, senior advocate Y Jayaraju strongly condemned the proposed amendments, calling them draconian. He asserted that these changes would seriously undermine the autonomy and independence of legal profession and its statutory bodies, including Bar Council of India and State Bar Councils.

Jayaraju emphasised that advocates played a pivotal role in India’s independence movement and later contributed significantly to shaping democratic and secular Constitution. As an integral part of the judiciary, the legal fraternity has always been in the forefront in defending constitutional values. He warned that the proposed amendments would weaken the independence of legal profession, reducing bar councils to mere puppets of the government, much like institutions such as Election Commission of India, national commissions, and central agencies.

He called upon the entire legal fraternity, judiciary, democratic forces, political parties, and civil society to join the protest and exert pressure on the government to withdraw the bill. Instead of restricting the legal profession, he urged the government to enact an Advocates Protection Act to safeguard the dignity, independence, and integrity of lawyers.

Bar Association vice-president Nityajeevaraju, secretary Ravikanth Prasad, and advocates M Subbaiah, Nagappa, R Narasimha, Mahesh, A Prabhakar Reddy, Nagendra Yadav, B Chandrudu, Raviraju and others participated in the protest and voiced their concerns.

The legal fraternity in Kurnool has vowed to continue its agitation until the government withdraws the proposed amendments.