Centre Seeks Public Input on Advocates Amendment Bill, 2025

The Centre has sought public opinions on the Advocates Amendment Bill, 2025, seeking to revamp the legal profession and weed out unethical practices. The Bill wants to amend the Advocates Act, 1961, and repeal the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879.

The Advocates Amendment Bill, 2023, passed in December 2023, made key reforms aimed at regulating the legal profession in India. The Bill seeks regulation of touts, who acquire clients for legal practitioners on behalf of them against compensation

The Bill intends to control the legal profession and eliminate touts, who acquire clients for lawyers in return for money. The Bill empowers each High Court and district judge to draw up and promulgate lists of touts. Any individual whose name appears in the list of touts shall be barred from being a tout.

In addition, the Bill mandates a punishment for touts in the form of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or a fine not exceeding Rs 500, or both. This clause seeks to discourage people from resorting to illegal practices and safeguard the dignity of the legal profession.

The people have been requested to forward their suggestions and opinions on the Bill within a set time limit. The Centre will then take the feedback and incorporate any alterations required in the Bill before tabled in the Parliament for enactment. 

The reforms sought are likely to have profound effects on the legal profession in the direction of more transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior. By soliciting people's opinions, the Centre is demonstrating that it is serious about government by participation and making sure that everyone has had their say.