Ex Gratia Payment Of Rs 50 Lakhs To The Kin Of Advocates Who Succumbed To Covid: Plea In Supreme Court
A plea has been filed in Supreme Court seeking directions to pay ex- gratia amount about Rs. 50,00,000/- to the kin of the deceased advocate within the age of 60 years who have either succumbed to CoVID or in any other manner with immediate effect.
To seek further additional monetary help, the plea states that the advocate’s survival is only on cases/ briefs and they do not have any other source of income nor any body in the society comes forward to help them.
“Each and every year cores of Rupees are collected in the name of welfare fund by way of welfare tickets and when Advocates are in trouble most of the time neither concerned Bar Association nor concerned Bar Council comes forward to help them.”, the plea states.
Filed by petitioner in person through Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav, it has been argued in the plea that it has often been seen that landlords never prefer a tenant who is an Advocate or family of an Advocate, however, the judicial system calls them Officer of the Court.
Advocate Yadav in his plea has also averred that Advocate are always ready to serve (24x7) the society as well as to their clients, but when they are in crucial problem then their parent body i.e. Bar Council of India as well as State Bar Councils neither takes care of the Advocates nor the families of Advocate.
The petitioner has also requested the Hon’ble Court to work in full strength either Virtual Court /Physical mode and to take up all the matters irrespective of urgency/ importance because each and every matter is urgent in itself and the case/brief is the only source of income for the Advocates.
In this context, the plea further states that,
“Since the last one year Judicial system is semi paralyzed, therefore, only those Advocates who have good infrastructure and well established paraphernalia have been able to manage their profession. Small time or other advocates and their staff are only seeing the drama which has been created by the society, even police personnel and other Government. Staff who are in direct touch with the public are doing work as per their whims and fancies which shows that they are playing mockery with the system. Unavailability of the Judicial System for the General Public has deprived the public to complain against the corrupt system. The General Public has no power to approach the well-established lawyers or Advocates because of the high professional and consultation charges, therefore, now the Judicial System is open only for those people who are gaining too much money and are in a position to dominate the present situation.”
Case Title: Pradeep Kumar Yadav v. Union of India