Anadi Tewari
In a circular (dtd: 03 May 2021), the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Advocate Vikas Singh has appealed to his fellow members of the legal fraternity who are in stable financial condition and are in a position to help, to come forward and contribute in lending whatever financial help we can to our younger and needy colleagues at the bar.
“In these extremely difficult, the bereaving families of those lawyers have to be taken care of by providing financial help to them. This is the least we can do for the departed soul that has left the family in lifelong grief and distress,” the letter reads.
“SCBA has in its fold about 18000 lawyers and to date, we have no institutional social security for the members. A significant number of our members are not financially sound enough to scrape through this testing time and are facing virtual starvation and are not able to meet their daily needs/expenses,” the Association noted vide this letter.
In view of the foregoing highlighted issues, the letter through the President of SCBA has been written which further reads:
“By way of this letter, I make a public appeal to those of us who are in a position to help, to come forward and contribute in lending whatever financial help we can to our younger and needy colleagues at the bar. As a senior member of the bar, I am reaching out to you and the entire legal fraternity to support this initiative with the hope that we can together help our needy members of the bar and their families who probably are facing the most difficult time in this profession.”
As the senior member of the bar, Advocate Vikas Singh has already made a contribution of Rs. 50 Lakhs for the said cause as compared to Rs. 20 Lakhs last year.
“I hope and trust that you will be happy to extend your helping hand and contribute generously,” SCBA in its public appeal for financial help to young-needy lawyers.
SCBA’s President also took note of the distress caused due to the demise of many of the members of the legal fraternity during this crisis (particularly this second wave of COVID-19) especially the needy members, and that is why this public appeal is made to all the other financially stable members to come up and help the needy ones.
Last year, SCBA had provided financial aid to needy lawyers with many of the financially stable members contributing to the cause, benefitting more than 900 members.