The Supreme Court Wednesday took serious note of financial problems faced by advocates due to restricted functioning of courts in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic and sought response from the Centre and all Bar bodies on setting up a fund for providing relief to the lawyers.
The apex body of lawyers, Bar Council of India (BCI) has moved the top court through a writ petition seeking financial assistance, including disbursal of soft loans, to the needy advocates during the persisting COVID-19 pandemic which has crippled judicial functioning.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to the Centre and sought its response within two weeks on the BCI plea.
The bench, at the outset, told senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, appearing for BCI, that the court intends to take up the issues pertaining to needy advocates suo motu (on its own) and issued notices to the Centre, the BCI, all Bar associations and state bar councils and sought their response in two weeks.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta accepted the notice on behalf of the Centre, and Mishra on behalf of the BCI.
The top court also issued notice on the transfer petition filed by BCI seeking transfer of similar cases pending in different high courts to the apex court.
“The pandemic has taken a toll on citizens of the country including the legal fraternity”, the bench said and noted that as per the BCI rules lawyers are not entitled to take up any other profession to earn livelihood and legal profession is their only source of earning.
It said: “There is constant demand for resumption of normal functioning of courts but the resumption of normal court functioning jeopardises the health of judges, lawyers and staff of courts. Medical advice is not to start physical court hearing.