Advocates express solidarity with suspended lawyers

Expressing solidarity with the ongoing protests against the amendments made to rules under the Advocates Act, nearly 800 lawyers today urged the state Bar council to suspend all of them till the rules are revoked.
Advocates led by senior lawyer R Vaigai wrote a letter to the Chairman of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry demanding their enmasse suspension pursuant to the suspension of 126 advocates statewide by the Bar Council of India.
"We the undersigned members of the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Bar request to be suspended from practice, until the said rules are revoked. We also demand that the suspension orders against 176 advocates passed from 2015 till today in connection with agitations be revoked and the arrested advocates be released", the letter said.

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court Advocates Association in its general body meeting decided to participate in the General Body meeting of Joint Action Committee of Advocates Association of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry tomorrow at Thanjavur. It also decided to take further action as per the decision taken there.
It also demanded that no criminal action be initiated against those who participated in the "peaceful agitation" on July 25 and release of all advocates remanded by the North Beach Police Station for participating in the protest.
In a resolution, it also demanded that the suspension orders and disciplinary proceedings passed by BCI and BCTP against the advocates of Tamil Nadu, who participated in various agitations during 2015-16 be withdrawn unconditionally.

It also urged Tamil Nadu government to withdraw pending FIRs against the lawyers filed for participating in protests.
Hundreds of lawyers from across Tamil Nadu had on July 25 laid a virtual siege to Madras High Court campus demanding withdrawal the amendments to the Advocates Act.
The Bar Council of India had on July 24 suspended 126 lawyers of Tamil Nadu and prohibited them from practising in any court or tribunal in the country pursuant to its warning that it will suspend lawyers who indulge in boycott and other activities.