Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha disburses financial aid to the dependents of deceased lawyers

 

Chandigarh: Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, Chief Justice, Punjab & Haryana High Court accompanied by Justice Arun Palli, in the presence of Minderjeet Yadav, Chairman, Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana disbursed the financial assistance to the dependents of the deceased advocates at a function organised by Bar Council of Punjab & Haryana at Law Bhawan, Sector 37. The event was attended by functionaries of Bar Council of India (BCI) including Partap Singh, Raj Kumar Chauhaan, Baljinder Saini and others.

While addressing the fraternity, Minderjeet Yadav said, “Apart from statutory, enrollment and disciplinary functions, the Bar Council has always worked for the welfare and betterment of the legal fraternity. Before the enactment and implementation of the “Advocates Welfare Fund Act” the Bar Council has so far from its own resources provided financial assistance to the families of approximately 700 deceased advocates. With the increasing inflation every year, the implementation of Welfare Fund Act became necessary. Now due to the occurrence of Covid-19 the whole world is facing economic meltdown and the legal fraternity is worst affected.”

With the assistance of the Welfare Fund Act the State of Haryana and Punjab has already disbursed their respective amount and the Bar Council has disbursed more than Rs 2.56 Crore as Covid-19 financial assistance to the affected members of the legal fraternity, now again the Bar Council has decided to disburse approximately Rs 1 crore to the families of the deceased advocates and in total a sum of Rs 4 crore and 28 Lakh.

The Chairman also emphasized that the State Bar Council always stood with the legal fraternity of the three states especially during this tough time of pandemic and today’s humble grant is one out of many. The families of deceased advocates were requested to apply for the death claim benefit and such applicants after scrutiny have been given the benefit today.