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WILL THE NEW ADVOCATES PROTECTION BILL STOP ATTACKS ON LAWYERS?By Dr Olav Albuquerque
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WILL THE NEW ADVOCATES PROTECTION BILL STOP ATTACKS ON LAWYERS?By Dr Olav Albuquerque

LAW, Mar 28- April 03, 2026 March 27, 2026 , by

CONFLICT is woven into journalism and law. The aphorism that conflict, cataclysm, corruption and cricket make news goes hand-in-hand with the aphorism that practising law is synonymous with conflict resolution. In the process, gangsters and criminals harass and sometimes kill lawyers, thereby obstructing the administration of justice.
 But unlike judges who are protected by the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 lawyers in India had no law to protect them from being attacked while discharging their duties. This was until The Advocates (Protection) Bill, 2021, drafted by the Bar Council of India, sought to prevent violence, harassment, and malicious prosecution against lawyers while performing their duties.
Key provisions of the 2021 Act mandated six months to five years imprisonment for violence, police protection for threatened advocates, and mandatory investigation by senior advocates when lawyers were assaulted while discharging their duties.
In Goa, The Goa Advocates Protection Bill, 2026 was a long-felt need in this former Union territory, which has now been declared a state with Konkani as the official language. Despite 66 years of liberation from Portuguese rule, advocates still face intimidation and harassment while discharging their official duties.

NEW LAW
THIS new law aims to protect advocates from violence, intimidation and false implication while performing their professional duties. The decision was taken during a meeting of the state cabinet, paving the way for legislation that introduces legal safeguards and penal provisions to ensure the safety and security of members of the legal profession.
 According to the government, the bill seeks to prohibit acts of violence, harassment, and wrongful accusations against advocates. It also proposes strict action against individuals found guilty of attacking or threatening lawyers in connection with their professional work.
The proposed law is intended to create a safer working environment for advocates and to strengthen their legal protection while discharging their responsibilities within the justice system.
In December 2022, advocate Gajanand Sawant was brutally assaulted with kicks, blows and an iron rod while he was meeting his client. The Mapusa Advocates Association was in an uproar after the incident. Whether the head constable was arrested and charges framed against him for assaulting an advocate is not known.
A 38-year-old advocate Mohammed Khadeer (also identified as Abdul Qadeer) was stabbed to death inside his office in Suleiman Nagar, Attapur, on Saturday, February 14, 2026. The unknown murderers barged into his office and attacked him with sharp-edged weapons, causing multiple stab wounds. He died on the spot.
A 34-year-old woman lawyer, Swapna Kumari, was murdered in broad daylight on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, in Kethireddypally village, Moinabad, on the outskirts of Hyderabad by her brother, Raju, and his associates while surveying a disputed 10-acre property. Assailants attacked her with stones and slit her throat. The police later arrested her brother Raju and three others.

MAKE THE DISTINCTION
A DISTINCTION must be drawn between advocates who are attacked while discharging their official duties and for reasons other than discharge of their professional duties towards their clients. The law cannot extend a blanket immunity to all advocates in Goa and throughout the country, who may misuse their professional status to usurp land, cheat gullible clients and misuse their professional status to enrich themselves.
Advocacy plays a crucial role in ensuring procedural fairness and upholding legal integrity during investigations (Easter, 2023). However, despite its significance, lawyers cannot practice their profession when an opponent who may have links with the underworld harasses, intimidates and even murders an advocate while discharging his duty.

CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS
THESE laws are the products of international conventions and treaties signed by India with developed countries, which recognize the hazards faced by lawyers in conflict resolution. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights all recognize that lawyers risk their lives during site inspections.
Even though these instruments nominally recognize the right to counsel, their enforcement is not consistent and is still vulnerable to political, institutional, and economic pressures.
The professional ethics of legal advocacy, such as breaches of confidentiality, pressures on defence counsel, and systemic underfunding of legal aid services, also require redress by immediate measures which the new law enacted by the Goa cabinet fails to redress.
Addressing these issues involves not only legislative safeguards but also cultural changes within law enforcement and prosecution agencies to build respect for the independence and dignity of the legal profession.

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