Delhi Voter ID Not Must For Advocates Enrolled With BCD To Claim CM's Welfare Scheme : High Court

In a significant verdict, the Delhi High Court on Monday ordered to extend benefits of the Chief Minister's Advocates' Welfare Scheme to all advocates registered with the Bar Council of Delhi, and residing in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The benefits are to be extended irrespective of whether they hold voter ID cards of Delhi or not.

 The order has been passed by Justice Prathiba Singh in a petition filed by the Bar Council of Delhi.

Dealing with petitions seeking directions to extend the benefit of the scheme to all those enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi(BCD), whether their names appear on the voters' list of the national capital or not, the court said, "Primacy is to be given to the place of practice of a lawyer and not the place of residence". It observed that "not all can afford to live in the national capital even if they practice here."

Noting that the scheme recognizes the role of advocates in the society and in the legal profession, the court said regardless of where they reside these lawyers play an important role in the dispensation of justice in Delhi. The Bar Council of Delhi has been directed to fill in the annual deficit in the budget allocated by the Delhi government.

The pleas argued against discrimination on the basis of names on the voters' list in Delhi, stating that the discrimination on the basis of place of residence and not practice, is not based on any reasonableness.

The pleas sought to quash or modify the government's Mar 17 notification to the extent of deleting the eligibility condition on the basis of names on the voters' list of Delhi.

Under the Rs. 50 crore scheme, the Delhi government was to purchase insurance policies from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and New India Assurance Company (NIAC) for around 29,000 Delhi lawyers.

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Click here to read/download the judgment