Delhi High Court while reserving its judgment on a Writ Petition (PIL) filed by Advocate Pankaj Kumar appealed to the Senior Advocates to ensure that the Stipend paid to their Junior Advocates should be sufficient enough to meet their financial requirements and allow them to lead a dignified life.

The Petition filed by the young advocate petitioner, contended before the court that New and young advocates are unable to arrange for their accommodation, food, traveling, and other allied expenses due to a lack of proper and consistent source of income, and directions were sought from the DHC to direct the Bar Council of Delhi to provide financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 5000/- to the newly enrolled advocates during their initial period of practice.

The Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice SUBRAMONIUM PRASAD made a few observations "At the outset, it becomes pertinent to note that, unfortunately, young professionals in all fields, be it from Medicine, Chartered Accountancy Architecture and Engineering etc., face problems that are similar to the ones being faced by young advocates. Job opportunities are scarce and persons competing for these limited job opportunities are far too many which makes the competition arduous and the services of an individual dispensable,"

Further realizing the problems faced by these young advocates, the Court took judicial note of the fact that these advocates who are newly enrolled in the profession face immense difficulties in sustaining themselves owing to the higher cost of living in the Capital, and observed "It is indeed very difficult for young advocates to bear expenses for the purposes of accommodation food, and traveling expenses. This Court also takes note of the fact that many of these youngsters either do not get paid by their seniors or the salaries that are paid to them are so meagre that it barely covers the cost of living in a metropolitan city," 

The Court further observed "Many of these young advocates, if fortunate enough, either have to depend on their families to meet day-to-day expenses or are reduced to a state whereby they are forced to take up more lucrative and feasible job offers. This is indeed a sorry state of affairs of a noble profession whose dynamics end up excluding those with less financial resources as compared to their privileged counterparts."

The DHC did not admit the petition on the issue of giving any monthly stipend to the Young Advocates but made the observation "It is for the Bar Councils to make provisions to provide some kind of financial assistance so that the young advocates, who are the future of this noble profession, are able to sustain themselves. Other than making an earnest appeal to the Bar Council of Delhi and the Bar Council of India to make provisions for providing stipends to the young advocates, who have recently enrolled themselves in the profession, so that they can overcome the financial stress in the initial years of practice, this Court cannot pass a writ of mandamus directing them to mandatorily provide stipends to the young advocates," 

Case Details:-

W.P.(C) 12116/2022
PANKAJ KUMAR ..... Petitioner
versus
BAR COUNCIL OF DELHI AND ORS ..... Respondents

ORDER WOULD BE UPLOADED SOON