Saturday, Apr 20, 2024 | Last Update : 08:37 AM IST
DPCC urges L-G Baijal to enact special act for lawyers’ safety
Legal dept chief says move will ensure properties not damaged.
New Delhi: The legal and human rights department of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) has urged lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal to enact a special act for the safety and security of lawyers in the national capital.
The legal and human rights department chairman, Sunil Kumar, said that lawyers are in dire need of an act that will prohibit violence against them and ensure that their properties are not damaged.
He said that this new act should be like the one made for doctors and medical practitioners, which safeguards them from such incidents.
According to Section 4 of this act for medical practitioners, if any violence is done in any medicare institution, the accused can be punished with imprisonment up to three years. Furthermore, as per Section 5 of this act, every offence that would be committed under Section 3 of the act, would be cognisable and non-bailable.
Mr Kumar said such an act will enable lawyers to take up challenging cases with confidence to get justice for the aggrieved without fearing for their life and property.
He said that it will also serve the cause of impartial justice as lawyers will be encouraged to take the brief of controversial cases with the knowledge that there is an act to protect their life and property from elements who are determined to prevent justice being delivered to serve a particular interest.
Elaborating further, Mr Kumar said the international law clearly stipulates both negative and positive state obligations to maintain independence of the legal profession and to protect lawyers from persecution and threats to their rights, including arbitrary detentions, disappearance and attack, which unfortunately has happened in innumerable occasions, be it the incident of lawyers being abducted or they being publicly thrashed by local goons inside the court premises.
He said the protection of lawyers and the legal profession at large has been recognised by the international legal community as a critical issue.
This is evident in the creation of the UN Special Rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers.
Mr Kumar said the regional human rights bodies have also created similar obligations upon states in recognition of the pervasive threat to the independence of the legal profession.
