Delhi Bar seeks Rs500-cr aid from PM Cares Fund

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 11

The Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide financial relief to Bar members hit by financial crisis due to the Covid pandemic.

KC Mittal, BCD chairman, said the condition of advocates was worsening and to mitigate their hardship, the council needed a financial relief of Rs 500 crore.

“The BCD has already disbursed Rs 8 crore among needy lawyers and more needs to be done in order to give them succour,” Mittal said.

He demanded release of funds from the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM Cares Fund) as well as the Contingency Funds created under Article 267 of the Constitution.

The letter highlighted the fact that the closure of courts during the lockdown dealt a grievous blow to the livelihood of thousands of advocates.

“It needs to be recognised that the legal community in Delhi and NCR is facing a severe financial crisis and the situation demands urgent intervention by the government,” the letter reads.

The PM Cares Fund has in its corpus a sum of Rs 9,677.9 crore to deal with disasters, emergencies, and situations of distress, it said, maintaining that contingency funds have categorically been created to meet “unforeseen disastrous situations” like the present one.

“In such an emergent and disastrous situation, the citizens cannot be left high and dry,” said the letter.