Bar Council of Delhi writes to PM, seeks Rs 500-crore assistance

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

As a large number of lawyers remain workless due to COVID-19 pandemic, Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) has written to the Prime Minister seeking financial relief for Bar members hit by financial problems due to the unprecedented health crisis.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, BCD chairman KC Mittal said the condition of advocates was worsening day by day and to mitigate their continuing hardship, the BCD needed Rs 500-crore financial relief.

The BCD has already disbursed Rs 8 crore to needy lawyers and much more was required to be done in order to give them succour, said Mittal.

He sought release of funds from the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) as well as the Contingency Funds created under Article 267 of the Indian Constitution.

The letter sought to highlight the fact that the lockdown from March 25 to June 30 gave a grievous jolt to the earning of thousands of advocates due to closure of courts.

“It needs hardly to be emphasised that the legal community in Delhi/NCR is facing severe financial crisis and the situation demands urgent intervention by the Government by providing necessary funds…,” read the letter.

As per available information, the PM CARES Fund has in its corpus a sum of Rs 9,677.9 crore to deal with disasters, emergencies, and situations of distress, it said, adding contingency funds have categorically been created to meet “unforeseen disastrous situations” like the present one.

“In such an emergent and disastrous situation, the citizens cannot be left high and dry,” it added.