Nagpur: The judicial working the courts in the city was hampered as all the office-bearers of District Bar Association and lawyers of Friday staged dharna agitation in front of Nyay Mandir to protest against Advocates Amendment Bill. The agitating lawyers raised slogans criticising the Bill.
Terming the bill as “draconian, undemocratic and anti-lawyer,” the protesting lawyers stated that the proposed bill provides for provisions like compensation to litigants if one loses in a court case, imposition of fine on lawyers which may extend to Rs.3 lakh, award of compensation to be paid by lawyers to the litigants upto Rs.5 lakh, appointments of retired judges on disciplinary committees, election of 50 percent posts of Bar Council and appointments of non-advocates on 50 percent posts, contempt of court proceedings in the domain of District and Sessions courts etc.
The lawyers boycotted all the civil and criminal courts. The District Bar Association appealed all the judges not to dismiss any case in the absent of lawyers.
The High Court and other courts in the city and districts wore a deserted look as there were neither lawyers nor litigants present. Judges sat in the empty court rooms before retiring to their chambers later as cases could not be taken up for hearing.
The dharna protest was participated by DBA President Adv Prakash Jaiswal, other advocates Prakash Patil, Nilesh Gaidhane, Shrikant Gaulkar, Parag Bezalwar, Girish Khorgade, Raibhandare, Manoj Mendhe, Samir Parate, Chavan, Satpure, Ravi Naidu, Sunil Lacharwar, Chaurasia, Nandkishore Vajpayee, Anant Zargar, Raj Shende, Sanket Yadav, Bhandari and others in large numbers.
