Privileges of a lawyer — Salient features of the Advocates Act, 1961

A senior advocate walks into a crowded Bombay High Court courtroom and the judge calls his matter ahead of others. A client sits in a café and tells an advocate things he has told nobody else, and the advocate can never be made to repeat them in court. A person with no licence at all stands up to argue a case and risks going to jail. What do advocates have that others do not, and where exactly does the law give it?

In two minutes

The Advocates Act, 1961 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 give advocates a set of privileges — the exclusive right to practise (ss.29, 30, 33), pre-audience (s.23), protection from disclosure of client communications (BSA s.132), protection of the councils’ acts in good faith (s.48), and a fair disciplinary process with appeals (ss.35–38) — and those privileges are the other side of the duties the Act imposes.

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