The Delhi Government has accepted the recommendations of the 13-member Advocates Committee set up under the convenership of the then Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President, Rakesh Kumar Khanna for the utilisation of the Rs 50 crore grant towards the Chief Minister’s Advocates Welfare Scheme.

Speaking to the media, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal today said that the report of the Committee has been accepted by the Cabinet.

The Committee, after holding in-depth deliberations and considering the matter at great length, had proposed the following schemes for the welfare of advocates:

• Group (Term) Insurance for practising advocates providing life cover of Rs. 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs) per advocate.
• Group Medi-claim coverage for the advocates, their spouse and two dependent children unto the age of 25 years, for a family floater sum insured of Rs. 5,00,000/- (Rupees Five Lakhs).
• E-library with 10 computers loaded with e-journals and web editions of e-journals, along with printers in all the 6 district courts.
• Creche facility for advocates and staff employees in each of the 6 district courts.

Kejriwal also announced that advocates in the city would get electricity at domestic rates instead of commercial for their chambers. 

As per the Committe’s report, based on the verification undertaken by the Bar Council of Delhi,  40,115 advocates are eligible for the above benefits under the scheme.

In November, Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal had announced that a 13-member committee of lawyers would be set up to make recommendations on the utilization of the Rs. 50 crore earmarked for the Advocates Welfare Fund by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

The announcement for the budgetary allocation was made by the Chief Minister in February this year at an event organized at Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court Complex. Kejriwal had then declared that the grant of Rs 50 crore towards an Advocates Welfare Scheme would not be a ‘one-time’ grant, but would be recurring in nature.

The grant comes after the initial funding of Rs 1 crore was granted by the Delhi Government in 2001 at the time of enactment of Advocates’ Welfare Fund Act, 2001.  In November last year, the Bar Council of Delhi had written to the CM seeking an annual grant of Rs. 10 crores towards advocates’ welfare scheme.

Apart from Khanna, the 13-member Committee comprised BCD Chairman KC Mittal, Delhi Government Standing Counsels Rahul Mehra and Ramesh Singh and DHCBA President Mohit Mathur.

Vice President Dwarka Bar Association Rajesh Kaushik, President New Delhi Bar Association RK Wadhwa, President Delhi Bar Association NC Gupta, Additional Secretary Saket Bar Association Hemant Mehta, President Shahadra Bar Association Pramod Nagar, Honorary Secretary of the Rohini Bar Association Rakesh Chahar and Advocates Kamal Mehta and Amitabh Chaturvedi were also part of the Committee.

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