The Bar Association of India on Monday condemned the searches by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the homes and offices of senior advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, PTI reported. The association said the CBI’s action was “excessive, disproportionate and unjustified”.

The investigating agency had on July 11 conducted the searches in a case related to the alleged violation of rules under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Last month, the agency had filed a case against Grover and his non-governmental organisation Lawyers Collective for alleged discrepancies in the utilisation of foreign aid. Grover is a trustee and director of Lawyers Collective. Jaising, who is married to Grover, is a trustee and secretary of the organisation.

In its statement on Monday, the Bar Association of India said the action “amounts to an assault on the independence of lawyers engaged in constitutionally protected activities of advancing human rights and upholding the rule of law”.

Jaising had last week said she was being targeted along with her husband for their human rights work over the years. Lawyers Collective has said the FIR has “no basis in fact and in law” and has been filed to target and silence its office bearers for the cases they have taken up in the past.

Over 150 concerned citizens on Thursday condemned the raids, saying they were “nothing short of a brute show of intimidation as well as gross abuse of power”. The International Commission of Jurists also released a statement on the same day, denouncing the raids.