Advocates across state don black badges at work

Ranchi: Over 30,000 advocates of the state on Monday donned black badges at work to condemn the police action against their fraternity at Hapur in Uttar Pradesh and also to demand the implementation of a law for the protection of advocates in Jharkhand.Notably, the Uttar Pradesh police resorted to baton-charge on advocates who were staging a protest at Hapur last Tuesday.To make the protest effective, the Jharkhand State Bar Council (JSBC) on Saturday instructed its affiliated organisations — the Advocates’ Association of Jharkhand high court, the district bar associations, and the sub-divisional bar associations to ensure that all of their members wear black badges at work.JSBC president Rajendra Krishna said, “The protest was very successful. We wanted to express our solidarity with the advocates of the country on the issue.”He added that JSBC also highlighted its long-pending demand for framing of rules to protect the advocates in Jharkhand. Krishna further said after repeated demands, the state government asked the advocates to submit a draft of the law. Though the draft was submitted several years ago, no action has been taken so far, he lamented.Krishna added that in 2022, the state government instructed the JSBC to submit the Hindi version of the draft rule, which has also been complied with.Meanwhile, Ranchi District Bar Association general secretary Sanjay Vidrohi said all advocates who came to the district court wore black badges. He further said that several members of the RDBA have been attacked in the recent past and stressed that the government has not framed rules for the protection of advocates despite giving several assurances.