Bar Council Of Tamil Nadu Urged To Create A Corpus Of Rs 2 Crores To Help Advocates Facing Hardship During Lockdown

A group of lawyers of Madras High Court appealed to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu to create a corpus of Rupees 2 Crores to help those advocates who are facing financial hardship due to the lockdown.

Stating that sporadic incidents of individual donations by senior lawyers and judges cannot replace a "collective and concerted efforts" by bodies such as Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, Madras High Court Advocates Association, Madras Bar Association etc, the representation sent by the group of about 872 advocates said :

"We therefore appeal to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu to take the lead and devise a scheme to allocate a sum of Rs.2,00,00,000/- (Rupees Two Crores only) as corpus fund and solicit a minimum contribution of Rs.50,00,000 ( Rupees Fifty Lakhs) each from MHAA and MBA. Contributions may also be solicited from Hon'ble Judges, Bar Council Members, Senior Advocates and senior members of the Bar in the State for generating a fund of at least a sum of Rs.5, 00, 00,000 (Rupees Five Crores only). A minimum sum of Rs.7,500/- (Rupees Five Thousand Only) may then be provided in a systematic manner to a targeted group of most deserving Advocates".

They suggested an eligibility criteria for deserving candidates in the following lines :

(a) Age shall be below 35 years.

(b) Enrolment and practice shall be below 7 years.

(c) She/he must be a regular practicing lawyer as per the Bar guidelines.

(d) She/he does not have a senior who support financially.

"We are conscious of the fact that even those advocates who do not fall within the above categories may be experiencing hardship and financial distress. Schemes may be devised to help this category, including credit and loan facilities with no interest", they added.

"The Bar Council may adopt a proactive role and reach out to banks to discuss loan facilities for advocates who have completed 10 years of practice to support their staff and office", they suggested.

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