Plea To Include Advocates' Parents As Dependents For Medical Insurance Withdrawn From Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday permitted withdrawal of a public interest litigation filed by Advocate Ramesh Naik L, seeking a direction to the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) and the Bar Council of India (BCI) to take appropriate action to include Parents of Advocates as dependents in the model form provided by the State Bar Council to provide Medical insurance, Term insurance for Advocates.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice M G S Kamal said, “After arguing for sometime the party in person seeks leave to withdraw the PIL with liberty to file a proper and comprehensive PIL. Allowed to withdraw with liberty as prayed for.”

During the hearing, the court pointed out discrepancies in the petition as well as the representation given to the Karnataka State Bar Council by the petitioner. It said, “You have not done what you could have done, you have done only in a halfway. You filed a proper PIL, not like this.”

Naik was unable to answer Court's query as to when he filed his application for insurance. “This is a casual approach,” Court then observed.

BCI, after holding due consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice, requested all the State Bar Councils (SBCs) in the country, to collect certain data of the practising Advocates on their respective rolls in order to be able to provide Medical insurance, Term insurance for Advocates. KSBC in turn directed its members to coordinate with all the Bar Associations in the State to collect certain data of the member Advocates viz. Name and age of the Advocate and his/her spouse and children information as provided in the model form.

The plea had claimed that exclusion of Parents data at the very initial stage of information collection of Advocate and his family for the purpose of medical insurance coverage violates the Regulation 2(C) of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Micro-insurance) Regulations, 2005. The rule defines the meaning of Family as a Unit comprising Husband, Wife, dependent Parents and a maximum of three children.

The petition had stated that parents of any person, including Advocates, are at higher risk of developing illnesses due to their age; they require more medical attention including regular health check-ups.

Case Title: Ramesh Naik L And Karnataka State Bar Council and Ors.

Case No: WP (FR) NO.14863/2023

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Kar) 319

Date of order: 22-08-2023