Delhi HC stays order on inclusion of NCR lawyers in welfare scheme by CM

The Delhi High Court stayed a single judge's order extending insurance benefit under the Chief Minister's Advocates' Welfare Scheme to all lawyers registered here with the Bar Council of Delhi and are residing in any part of the National Capital Region (NCR).

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday stayed a single judge's order extending insurance benefit under the Chief Minister's Advocates' Welfare Scheme to all lawyers registered here with the Bar Council of Delhi and are residing in any part of the National Capital Region (NCR).

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Amit Bansal issued notice to the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) and five lawyers Balvinder Singh Bagga, Manish Saroha, Vivek Jain, Shivam Chanana, and Vaibhav Kalra and asked them to respond to the appeal filed by the Delhi government challenging the single judge's July 12 verdict.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 23.

Seeking a stay on the directions issued by the single judge, the Delhi government has clarified that it has no issues with implementing the policy for lawyers in the NCT of Delhi.

On July 12, Justice Prathiba M Singh, dealing with a batch of petitions, had ruled that the exclusion of lawyers registered with BCD but residing in NCR from the ambit of the scheme was discriminatory and arbitrary.

BCD had supported the inclusion of its members residing in NCR within the scheme.

Advocate Satyakam, representing the Delhi government, pressed for stay of the July 12 judgement saying a contempt petition has been filed in the matter.

The appeal said that the single judge's judgement makes serious inroads into the exclusive jurisdiction of the executive in formulating the policy having serious financial implications.

By the impugned order, the policy has been replaced by a new policy customized by a single judge. It is submitted that the single judge failed to appreciate the policy of the Government of NCT of Delhi and the submissions made with regard to the territorial jurisdiction of the Government of NCT of Delhi that there was a clear-cut correlation between the policy and confinement of the same to the territorial jurisdiction of Government of NCT of Delhi, it said.

The appeal said the direction to buy an insurance policy for 5044 lawyers residing in NCR by July 31, 2021 would highly prejudice the case of the Delhi government and would cause an irreparable loss to the authorities.

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It said the scheme which was meant for the residents of the National Capital Territory of Delhi could not have been modified to extend the same to the NCR just because the advocates residing in the NCR are permitted to practice in the courts in Delhi.

It is submitted that the two classes were unequal, distinct, and clearly identifiable. The scheme was clearly meant for residents of Delhi who held voter ID cards of Delhi, it said.

The single judge had emphasized that the scheme was announced to recognize the contribution of advocates in bettering the lives of the citizenry of Delhi and not for advocates who constitute the electorate.

It had observed that on account of various reasons including economic and financial reasons, a substantial number of advocates lived in the neighboring areas of Noida, Gurugram, Sonepat, Rohtak, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad but were intricately and intrinsically linked with the dispensation of justice in the national capital and contributed to the revenue stream.

The court had observed that no documents were placed before it to show the reasons behind the pre-condition of having a Delhi voter ID.

The chief minister had in November 2019 set up a 13 member committee, headed by then-Supreme Court Bar Association president Rakesh Kumar Khanna, to recommend ways for utilization of the fund under the scheme for welfare of advocates.

The committee had recommended a group mediclaim policy of Rs five lakh and a life insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh for each lawyer, besides setting up e-libraries and creche facilities in district courts through the fund.

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PTI