Institutionalizing Stipend System for Young Litigation Advocates

With recent Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Madras Judgment on stipend to young advocates, many multi-faceted discussions have come up as to the implementation of the same. Although of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has issued a circular intimating the order to all the lawyers and for implementing the same. The responsibility to provide stipend falls on the Advocates and Senior Advocates, which may discourage the Seniors from engaging the young advocates itself.

The most basic challenge is financial capacity to pay stipend to Young Litigation Advocates, by that I mean Young Litigation Advocate who have PQE of less than three years.

Despite there being numerous PILs, writ cases, a pan India effective and implementable solution is yet to be implemented.

Inspite of the various court(s) noting the plight of talented junior advocates leaving this profession on account of financial instability, there have been very less progress on that front.

The Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in 2022 in a PIL had noted that research by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, which showed that more than “79% of the advocates across seven high courts with less than two years of legal practice at the Bar are earning less than Rs 10,000 per month”.

The number of young advocates who are entering Litigation are on decline because of the sole reason of lack of institutional financial support.

The only state backed institutional support for stipend is offered by Kerala from 2018, that too Rs. 3000/- per month to eligible advocates.

Vision for Institutionalizing Stipend System for Young Litigation Advocates:

A system can be created by the Bar Council of India or State Bar Council, wherein a lawyer at the time of enrolment indicates the family income and file an application for grant of Stipend from the Bar Council for a period of three years from the date of passing the Bar Exam or the date of enrollment of the Advocate, as may be decided by the Bar Council.

Then Bar Council may review the application based on financial condition of the Advocate. It can be made mandatory that the said lawyer at the time of enrolment will furnish an affidavit by indicating the family income. The threshold and eligibility criteria can be decided by the Bar Councils themselves.

Once the grant application is processed, the Advocate Applicant will be provided with a pre-paid (which is reloaded monthly by the Bar Council) that can be utilized by the said advocate Applicant for her expenses.

Bar Council may also institute a bi-annual self-reporting mechanism by way of building a website/portal. The self-reporting mechanism mandates that the said Applicant will upload orders with appearances in different courts to extend the monthly stipend payout. This will ensure that the said advocate appears before the court.

This system will also provide Senior Advocates and Advocates an access to reliable young advocates who want to pursue litigation. This will in turn groom young talent in Litigation.

Solution of generating funds to institutionalize the stipend system:

The Bar Council may in the first instance, raise funds from the Bar, from CSR companies, from grant of the government or from fund raising activities as permissible by law which may be called as initial corpus.

Thereafter, the said corpus can be put into fixed deposit that gives interest payout regularly which can fulfil the stipend system.

Another solution would be putting that generated corpus into a mutual fund that gives regular dividend payout (similar to a pension scheme).

The cost liability to service the Stipend System:

Taking a very hypothetical example of the financial cost involved, at the level of State Bar Council:

Assuming, there are 1000 young Litigation advocates who need stipend for 3 years.

1000 lawyers x Rs. 10,000 per month x 12 months x 3 years = Rs. 360,000,000/-

The cost of servicing this stipend system would be Rs. 36 Crores for 3 years.

The cost of servicing this stipend system would be Rs. 12 crores for 1 year.

The cost of servicing this stipend system would be Rs. 1 crore for 1 month.

The cost of servicing this stipend system would be Rs. 328,767.12 lakh per day.

To conclude, just at an investment of Rs. 328,767.12 lakh per day, 1000 young litigation advocates will get stipend, who will be groomed for litigation and this profession will get the talented advocates that it needs.

The noble legal profession, in today’s age, need vision and vigor to implement this system which can remove or reduce the barrier to entry into litigation otherwise in the coming years, advocates who practice are willing to practice litigation and are talented would be diminished.

The author, Ritu Rajkumari is an advocate practicing since 2017. She may be reached at [email protected]

References:

[1] Farida Begam v. The Puducherry Government and Ors. [WP No. 17976 of 2019]

[2] Pankaj Kumar v Bar Council of Delhi and Ors. [WP(C) 12116 of 2022]

[3] https://www.livelaw.in/news-updates/chief-minister-pinarayi-vijayan-inaugurates-monthly-stipend-scheme-for-junior-lawyers-state-221331