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Delhi High Court today extended the interim stay on a single judge bench order which had extended the benefit of Chief Ministers’s Advocate’s Welfare Scheme to all lawyers irrespective of their names appearing in the voters list of Delhi, till December 1.

The division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had earlier issued notice on the appeal filed by Delhi Government against the single judge order.

The court has listed the matter for next hearing on December 1.

On July 12, 2021, the Single judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh had held that the condition that advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi should also be in the voters list of Delhi for being eligible to avail of the benefits of the Delhi Chief Ministers Advocate Welfare Scheme runs foul of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

The order was passed by the single Judge on a batch of pleas against the condition in the Scheme that the benefit of the same will only be available to such advocates whose names appear in the voters list of Delhi.

Lauding the Scheme, the court had said that though the Scheme itself had a laudable objective of recognising the role of lawyers in protecting the rights of citizens and their constructive role in society, however, the condition that it would be applicable only to residents in Delhi with Voter IDs, was "discriminatory and arbitrary as the sub-classification from amongst the advocates enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi, has no rational nexus with the object to be achieved."

Therefore, it was ordered that the "Scheme shall be extended to all advocates registered with the Bar Council of Delhi, whose names and credentials are verified, without insistence of Voter ID showing residence in Delhi".

Accordingly, the court had directed that for the current year’s policies, all advocates who had registered themselves and are eligible for the benefits under the Scheme would be extended the benefit.

Case Title: GNCTD vs Govind Swarup Chaturvedi