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Bar Council Of Delhi Approaches High Court Seeking Grant Of Medical & Term Insurance To Advocates Registered Under CM's Advocates Welfare Scheme
The Bar Council of Delhi filed a petition before the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Government of Delhi to grant medical and term insurance to Advocates registered under the Chief Minister's Advocates Welfare Scheme, within 15 days.
The petition was before a single-Judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh, the bench granted some time to the Government to submit a report on the steps taken by it for implementation of the scheme. The matter will be taken up on June 18.
The chief minister of Delhi last year announced a budgetary provision of Rs 50- crore per annum allowance for different welfare schemes for lawyers in Delhi-NCR. Later at the end of the year, the govt. announced that a committee comprising of 13 lawyers shall be constituted for the recommendation of utilisation of funds.
The plea also stated that the advertisement issued on 20 March 2020 by Delhi govt. calling for the registration of advocates for the scheme was done only after several representations were made to it. The registration was however obstructed by the Covid-19 situation and Delhi Government’s website server failure.
The government did not extend time for the registration. The petitioners contended that this step was arbitrary and unreasonable. It was further stated that non-extension of the registration date was deliberately made to deprive many of the eligible advocates from the benefits of the scheme.
BCI submitted that more than a month has elapsed since the notification of welfare scheme but there is no implementation of it, further the current situation demands such scheme to be implemented. The council sought a direction to the Delhi govt. for release of money and issuance of insurance policies for Mediclaim for Rs.5 lacs and Term insurance of Rs.10 lacs to around 29,098 already registered Advocates.
