On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court has asked the Advocates Welfare Fund Trust and Bar Council of Delhi to prepare a report stating a roadmap on how to address the financial hardship faced by Advocates due to COVID19 pertaining to pandemic.

The Court has highlighted that the writ of mandamus cannot be issued to a Trust for doing charity and therefore requested both the Welfare Fund and the BCD to consult various stakeholders and Senior Advocates and try to mutually reach a decision to resolve this issue.

The Court was taking up a plea seeking ex gratia payment of ₹25,000 to each member of the Advocates Welfare Fund who are strained of financial hardship due to COVID19.

It petitioner averted that such amount should be given to only those advocates, after due verification, who make a representation before the Trust Committee of the concerned Fund.

Learned Senior Counsel of the petitioner submitted that Section 24 of the Advocates Welfare Fund Act is broad enough to cover cases arising of COVID19.

He further submitted that the Trust Committee should declare COVID19 as a natural calamity and help Lawyers who don't have enough to make ends meet.

In addition to this, Mr Hariharan submitted that Bar Council should be called upon to formulate a scheme in this regard under Rule 44 of the Bar Council Rules.

On the other hand, appearing for the Fund, ASG Sanjay Jain submitted that the Trust Committee is willing to consider cases of COVID19 as 'medical needs' under Section 19 of the Act to provide compensation to those who are already enrolled with the Fund.

However, he pointed out that ex gratia compensation can't be given under Sec-19 in these cases. It is only given in the cases of expenditure incurred in receiving medical treatment, he said.

Mr Jain then informed the Court that there's a limited fund which can only be utilised for compensating medical expenses.

Learned Counsel for Bar Council of Delhi, Mr KC Mittal submitted that the Council has already disbursed 8 crores under 16,000 applications for the benefit of the advocates and noted that due to the financial crunch, the Council is diverting money from building fund and library fund.

Moreover, the Council is constantly getting in touch with the lawyers who are admitted in hospitals due to COVID19, he added.

 

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