Parliament passed the Advocates Amendment Bill

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What is the Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023?
• What are the Key Features of Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023?
• News Summary: Parliament passed the Advocates Amendment Bill
• Key features of Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 (now repealed)
• Key features of Advocates Act of 1961 (now amended)

Why in news?

• On the first day of the Parliament’s Winter Session, the Advocates Amendment Bill, 2023 was passed in the Lok Sabha.
  • The bill was already passed in Rajya Sabha’s Monsoon Session.

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Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023

• The Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was passed in the Rajya Sabha in August, 2023. Recently, during winter session, the bill was passed from LS.
• Aimed at weeding out touts from the legal system, the Bill:
  • repeals the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879, and
  • amends the Advocates Act, 1961.
• This was done in order to reduce the number of superfluous enactments in the statute book and repeal all obsolete laws.
  • This is in line with the government’s policy of repealing all obsolete laws or pre-independence Acts that have lost their utility.

Key Features of Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2023

• Touts:
  • The Bill provides that every High Court, district judge, sessions judge, district magistrate, and revenue officer may frame and publish lists of touts.
  • The Court or judge may exclude from the premises of the Court any person whose name is included in the list of touts.
• Preparation of lists:
  • The authorities empowered to frame and publish the list of touts may order subordinate courts to hold an inquiry into the conduct of persons alleged or suspected to be touts.
  • Once such a person is proven to be a tout, his name may be included by the authority in the list of touts.
  • No person will be included in such lists without getting an opportunity of showing cause against his inclusion.
• Penalty:
  • Any person who acts as a tout while his name is included in the list of touts will be punished with imprisonment up to three months, a fine up to Rs 500, or both.

News Summary: Parliament passed the Advocates Amendment Bill

Key features of Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 (now repealed)

• Aim
  • This act aimed to consolidate and amend the law relating to Legal Practitioners in certain provinces.
• Defined legal practitioner
  • Section 2 of the 1879 Act defined the term legal practitioner to include advocates, vakils, or attorneys of any High Court.
• Introduced a new definition of the term tout
  • A Tout was defined as:
    • someone who procures, in consideration of any remuneration from any legal practitioner, the employment of a legal practitioner in any legal business; or
    • one who proposes to any legal practitioner or anyone interested in any legal business to procure, for remuneration, the employment of the legal practitioner in such business.
  • Simply, a tout is someone who procures clients for a legal practitioner in exchange for payment.

Key features of Advocates Act of 1961 (now amended)

• The Advocates Act, 1961, was enacted to amend and consolidate the law relating to legal practitioners and to provide for the constitution of Bar Councils and an All-India Bar.
• Before this, legal practitioners were governed by three Acts:
  • the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879,
  • the Bombay Pleaders Act, 1920, and
  • the Indian Bar Councils Act, 1926.
• The Law Commission, in its 249th Report, titled ‘Obsolete Laws: Warranting Immediate Repeal’, recommended repealing the 1879 Act.
• Additionally, the All-India Bar Committee made its recommendations on the subject in 1953. Taking these into account, the 1961 Act was passed.

Q1) Who is an advocate in India?

In India, an advocate is a lawyer who has passed the All India Bar Examination and is licensed to practice law in courts. Advocates are qualified to represent clients in court, and can appear in any court.

Q2) Who is a tout?

A tout is someone who persistently solicits business, employment, or support. They may also be known as a solicitor, barker, or spruiker.

Source: Why Parliament passed the Advocates Amendment Bill, which aims to weed out ‘touts’ | Live Law | India Today