Ahmedabad: After the city’s bar associations abstained from court work in Ahmedabad’s lower courts for three days, Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG) on Saturday called for a boycott of judicial proceedings in all the courts across the state by the lawyers and bar associations from Monday to protest the Gujarat Rent Bill, 2026, by which the state govt seeks to change the jurisdiction for property rent-related disputes from courts to the revenue authorities.The bill provides that the deputy collector and additional collector would hear and adjudicate rent-related disputes. The lawyers have been protesting the proposal and demanding its reversal.The protests began at Ahmedabad Small Cause Courts at Bhadra court campus, where the bar associations locked the court gates and have abstained from court functioning for the past three days.To further the cause, BCG’s 23 members participated in an extraordinary general meeting held online on Saturday and resolved that all bar associations would abstain from court proceedings in all courts across Gujarat from Monday. The council has resolved to ask all bar associations to abstain from work in all courts, tribunals, and quasi-judicial bodies across the state. It has passed a resolution that the protest will continue until the state govt withdraws its bill, which, BCG says, is detrimental to the interests of lawyers, litigants, and people at large.BCG’s newly elected chairman P D Patel said, “The govt has chosen to divest the judiciary from adjudication work in rent-related disputes and transferred it to the already overburdened bureaucracy. We are seeking an appointment of the chief minister and will convince the state government to withdraw the bill. Until then, the lawyers would continue to protest.”
