The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL which had sought directions to Government and Bar councils to prepare a uniform national level Welfare scheme to provide financial assistance to lawyers who had been affected by Nationwide lockdown due to COVID 19 Pandemic.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice BR Gavai while conducting hearing through video conferencing, said the bench was not inclined to entertain the petition under Article 32.

The petition was filed by Advocate Abhinav Ramkrishna stated that Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Law and Legal Affairs, primarily responsible for the effective establishment of the judicial setup in this country has remained a mute spectator over the hardship being faced by the lawyers till date.

The petitioner had stated that “the Government, Bar Council and the State Bar Councils cannot be expected to be in a state of deep slumber or be insensitive towards the economic and mental hardship faced by lawyers, except few upon who have achieved a milestone by dint of their hard work and acumen.”

The petitioner had pointed out that lawyers across the nation have been paying welfare amount upon filing of the vakalatnama each time they enter appearance and in the unprecedented situation like the present one, it is incumbent upon all the State Bar Councils to come clean with the amount of funds they have in the welfare account and once an amount is said to have been disbursed under a welfare scheme during the time national crisis, giving the same a colour of debt/loan is not only against the objective of any welfare act, but the same is like ensuing an insult upon a needy lawyer.

-India Legal Bureau