Delhi HC Issues Notice In Plea Challenging the Notification Restricting CM Advocates Welfare Scheme To Only Those Lawyers Who Are Voters In Delhi

Delhi High Court has issued notice in a plea challenging the Delhi Government's Chief Minister Advocate's Welfare on the ground that it only recognises those advocates as beneficiaries who are in the voter's list of Delhi.

The Single Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh has issued notices to the Delhi Government, Bar Council of India and the Bar Council of Delhi.

Filed by Mr Govind Swaroop Chaturvedi, the writ petition states that while the Welfare Scheme is envisaged to benefit all advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi, notification dated March 17, 2020 only permits those advocates to avail the aforesaid benefits, who are in the voters' list of the State of Delhi.

Moreover, the Petitioner submits, the online form for submission has one of the mandatory columns as `Delhi Voter ID Card No.'

This qualification, as per the Petitioner, is discriminatory without any intelligible differentia to the extent of absurdity, and hence, is violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The Petitioner has challenged the legality of the said notification on the ground that it doesn't give a rational or reasonable argument for excluding the non-voters from the Welfare Scheme.

'Clearly, the said eligibility condition to exclude the non-voters is illegal and ultra-vires as well as inequitable as all the advocates registered with Respondent No.2/Bar Council of Delhi are playing same role for rendering their services for dispensation of justice in the courts at Delhi and are contributing in same manner to the Society', the petition states.

It is further claimed by the Petitioner that the Delhi Government has shown undue haste in the entire process by stipulating the last date for submission of applications as 31.3.2020 and subsequently 14 April 2020 despite a nationwide lockdown imposed by the Central Government.

Therefore, the Petitioner has demanded the benefits of the scheme to be extended to all the Advocates who are registered with Bar Council of Delhi regardless of the fact that they are registered voters of Delhi or not.