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Parliament passes Legal Profession Bill

The Parliament on Tuesday passed the Legal Profession Bill that will establish and allow the Bar Council to take action against state attorneys.

When the bill was initially presented to the parliament, the Bar Council did not have jurisdiction over state attorneys from the Attorney General's Office and the Prosecutor General's Office. During the preliminary debate on the bill, several members proposed to amend the bill to allow the Bar Council to have a say over state attorneys.

The parliament committee on independent institutions that researched the bill made the decision to remove the article that stated that the bar council had no authority in penalizing state attorneys. The revised bill was approved during Tuesday's parliamentary sitting with 69 members voting to approve the bill.

The bill presented by Maafannu Uthuru MP Imthiyaz Fahmy on behalf of the government reads that all regulatory power related to attorneys including issuing licenses and penalizing attorneys falls within the mandate of the Bar Council.

According to the current law, regulatory power of lawyers lies with the legal courts. The courts have taken action against several lawyers and suspended them in the past under the power vested in them. However, with the establishment of the Bar Council, the work of all legal practitioners will now be overseen by the council.