Punjab Advocate-General Atul Nanda has mooted a comprehensive insurance cover for lawyers with the Advocates’ Welfare Fund, which is currently being used only for compensation to the legal fraternity.
Nanda, addressing the inaugural function at the two-day workshop organised by the Bar Council of India on improving professional standards at the Bar, called for a radical break from the conventional use of the Fund in order to provide wider assistance to the lawyers.
Such a move would also help not only protect, but, in fact, augment the principle corpus of the Fund, he said.
Nanda also favoured the establishment of an academy for improving the skills of lawyers. He was, however, of the view that such academy should be participative in nature rather than being a State product.
“When the legal profession volunteers a fund for setting up such an institution, matched by the Bar Council, there will be a sense of partnership to ensure success of such an academy,” he said, adding that the state may, at best, be called upon to provide land and other external infrastructure.
Endorsing Nanda’s view, Justice Mahesh Grover, the Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court suggested that until such an effort was in place and executed, the Chandigarh Judicial Academy could be used for such purposes.
Justice Anil Ksheterpal, also Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, underlined the importance of senior advocates mentoring and training the junior advocates, which could go a long way in strengthening the judicial system, particularly in the prevailing environment when the judiciary was under extreme pressure.