Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated a monthly stipend scheme for junior lawyers in the state on February 11. Under the scheme, launched at an event hosted by the Bar Council of Kerala and the Advocates Welfare Trust, junior lawyers will be paid Rs 3,000 every month. Who is eligible? According to the Kerala government’s new scheme, only junior lawyers below 30 years of age are entitled to the monthly stipend. These lawyers must have less than three years of practice and an annual income under Rs 1 lakh. How did the scheme come about? The present scheme is based on a state government order dated June 24, 2022, passed in light of the Kerala Advocate Stipend Rules, 2021. Prior to this, on December 18, 2021, the Rules were passed by the Bar Council of Kerala, in the “exercise of the powers conferred by section 27 read with clause (gi) of sub-section (2) of section 9 of the Kerala Advocates’ Welfare Fund Act, 1980 (21 of 1980)”, with the previous approval of the government. Section 9 of the Kerala Advocates’ Welfare Fund Act deals with the “Functions of a Trustee Committee” which has been empowered to administer funds under the Act. However, even before the 2022 order, the state had tried to implement welfare measures for advocates. The 2018 Government Order On March 9, 2018, the Kerala government issued an order to provide a monthly stipend of up to Rs 5,000 to junior lawyers from the Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund. This fund was created by the Kerala Advocates’ Welfare Fund Act in 1980. Section 3 of the Act mandates the government to constitute an ‘advocates’ welfare fund’. The fund is made up of amounts credited to it by members of the Bar Council of India or any other state, or voluntarily donated by any Bar Council or Bar Association or any other person or advocate or person, grants by the state government, and “the amount set apart from the Legal Benefit Fund constituted under sub- section (2) of section 78 of the Kerala Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act, 1959 (10 of 1960), for providing social security measures for the legal profession”, to name a few. In 2018, a petition was filed in the Kerala High Court by an advocate called Dheeraj Ravi against the non-implementation of the government’s order. What did the court say? The Court questioned the Bar Council as to why there had been a delay in implementation. Finally, in the aftermath of this plea, the Kerala Bar Council on December 18, 2021, passed the Kerala Advocate Stipend Rules, 2021, which allowed an amount of up to Rs5,000 for ‘junior lawyers’. Section 9 states that the Trustee Committee shall administer the Fund. However, in June 2022, the Trustee Committee suggested some recommendations to the state government’s earlier order, following which on June 24, 2022, another Government Order was passed fixing Rs 3,000 as the monthly stipend. Apart from making amendments to the stipulated amount, a new provision was inserted saying that for advocates from Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) Communities, there would be no annual income limit.
