The Andhra Pradesh government is ready to enact an Advocates’ Protection Act, Law Secretary G. Pratibha Devi said on Thursday, after members of the Bezawada Bar Association intensified their demand through a nine-day relay hunger strike and a bike rally to the Secretariat.
A group of advocates led by Bezawada Bar Association president V. Lakshminarayana travelled from the association’s office to the Secretariat and met Pratibha Devi. The lawyers submitted a representation seeking legislation to protect advocates, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle.
The law secretary told the delegation that the state government was making efforts to bring the legislation soon. The report did not specify whether a draft Bill has been prepared, when it could be introduced in the state legislature or what protections the proposed law would contain.
The protest has been organised by members of the Bezawada Bar Association, who have been observing a relay hunger strike for the past nine days. The association said advocates across Andhra Pradesh were also staging protests demanding enactment of the legislation.
The demand places the proposed law within the broader administrative framework governing the legal profession and the functioning of courts. Advocates are a key link between citizens and the justice system, representing litigants before courts and tribunals. Any disruption affecting their ability to work can have consequences for access to legal proceedings, although the supplied report does not detail any such disruption in the state.
Lakshminarayana said lawyers across the state were participating in protests for the legislation. The meeting with the law secretary marks the latest formal engagement between the protesting advocates and the state government, but no specific implementation schedule was announced.
The government’s stated readiness to enact the law now leaves the next stage dependent on the legislative process. The law secretary said efforts were under way to bring the legislation soon, while the advocates’ association continues to press for enactment of the Advocates’ Protection Act.
