Advocates cannot get away with anything, law is same for all: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Thursday remarked that advocates cannot seek exemption or special protection from being charged for offences under law [Nitin Satpute v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.].A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Manjusha Deshpande said that the law is the same for all including lawyers. “Advocates cannot get away with anything, law is same for all,” the bench said.The remark was made while hearing a petition by a Mumbai lawyer, Nitin Satpute, seeking a declaration that Sections 353 and 332 of the Indian Penal Code should not be applicable to lawyers and that they should be given immunity from being charged for the offences under the said provisions.The sections deal with the offence of using criminal force to obstruct public servant from doing his duty. .The petition also sought a direction to the Central government to insert a new provision, Section 353A, in the Indian Penal Code, which would make committing crime against lawyers a separate offence.The Court directed the Maharashtra government to file its response to the petition within 4 weeks and posted the matter for hearing on June 11..The petitioner, Satpute, sought a declaration that using criminal force to restrict persons from protesting was illegal.This was in light of the alleged manhandling of a few lawyers on February 2 this year when they were protesting at Azad Maidan in Mumbai for enactment of the Advocates Protection Act.The protest was also a condemn meeting for the alleged kidnapping and murder of two practicing lawyers in January this year by a group of people which also included their client.Satpute claimed that the lawyers taking part in the protest meeting were manhandled by police and were restricted from leaving the ground by putting barricades.Advocate Vinod Raman, appearing for Satpute, stated that various incidents of violence were happening against lawyers and the entire community was being taken for granted.Chief Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar, appearing for the police, stated that the CCTV footage of the incident did not reveal any illegality or arbitrariness. He stated that the police barricades were put up to stop them from marching to Mantralaya (State Secretariat). The Court asked Venegaonkar to file an affidavit in addition to his oral submissions.