SC Bar Clerks' Assn seeks 'maintenance compensation' from govt

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

Maintaining that people’s health can’t be protected by causing uncompensated miseries to individuals, the Supreme Court Bar Clerks Association has filed a petition in the top court seeking a Rs 15,000 monthly “maintenance compensation” from the government, saying a majority of its members had been left unemployed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Centre owed a duty of care both in protecting the health of people and as well as livelihood of every citizen, including, advocates’ clerks, the association submitted.

Narrating the miseries of advocates’ clerks, the petition said the association members who normally earned from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a month by way of salary and tips given by litigants were on the verge of penury due to lockdown.

“They have been facing financial hardship for the past three months. Some members have not even got their basic salary,” the association said, seeking urgent intervention of the top court.

It said its members hailed from far-off places in various parts of the country and it was necessary to formulate a scheme for their sustenance and basic survival.

Contending that the “health of people cannot be protected by causing uncompensated miseries to individuals particularly the low income people like the advocates’ clerks”, the association sought a direction to the Centre to pay Rs 15,000 per month to each of its members