SC refuses to consider plea for monthly disbursal scheme for Bar clerks

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider a plea for a direction to the Centre to disburse a sum of Rs 15,000 per month to the Members of the Supreme Court Bar Clerks' Association from the month of June 2020 till normalcy is restored in the functioning of the court.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah asked senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner-body as to how the court can ask the Union government to pay.

The counsel said it was as per the mandate of the Disaster Management Act. The bench, then, said in that case, other associations would also demand similar relief.

On this, Luthra sought to withdraw the petition with the liberty to approach the Bar Council of India. The court, however, said the BCI dealt only with matters concerning advocates.

The court finally allowed him to withdraw the petition.

The petition, filed by advocate Deepak Prakash and settled by senior advocate Mohan V Katarki, contended since the announcement of national lockdown on March 25, 2020, to contain Covid-19, the clerks have been facing severe financial crunch.

The income of clerks, an integral and indispensable part of our legal system, has been linked to filing of cases which has disappeared due to limited functioning of courts.

"Most of the members of the petitioner Association had very little or no savings and, therefore, only after a few days of the lockdown, they started suffering financially. In fact, the advocates themselves lost their earnings and are unable to pay the monthly salary," it said.

Maintaining that their survival must be given utmost importance, the petitioner asked the court to direct the Union government to frame a scheme under the Disaster Management Act to allow ex gratia payments.

The petitioner claimed most of the clerks are on the verge of penury having absolutely no money to even look after basic facilities, likely health and education of children and even arranging food for their family members, in grave violation of the Article 21 of the Constitution.

It also pointed out that the Union government had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore financial aid package in the month of May, which covered small scale industries, migrant workers and other financially distressed groups of persons, however, no such scheme has been formulated for clerks and similarly placed persons.