Maharashtra, BCI asked to outline aid for junior lawyers, HC cites need for support to find their feet

The court was hearing a petition filed by 21 young advocates seeking financial assistance and welfare schemes for lawyers entering the profession.

The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government and the Bar Council of India (BCI) to spell out the steps being taken or proposed to be taken to provide financial assistance to junior advocates, citing a Supreme Court order that described the first three years of practice as a “period of turmoil” that often forces capable and promising young advocates to leave the profession.

The Bombay High Court said young advocates need support to find their feet, (HT Archives)

“We would like to make a point to the Respondents not to take the same adversely but take it affirmatively to consider the larger interest of the community of young advocates who enrol themselves,” a division bench of Justices Milind N Jadhav and Nandesh S Deshpande, sitting at the Kolhapur bench, said.

Inside the petition seeking financial aid and welfare schemes

The court was hearing a petition filed by 21 young advocates seeking financial assistance and welfare schemes for lawyers entering the profession. The petitioners relied on a circular issued by the BCI in 2024 pursuant to a Delhi High Court order, which recommended a minimum monthly stipend of ₹20,000 for junior advocates in urban areas and ₹15,000 for those in rural areas.

During the hearing on August 3, the petitioners argued that it is the “bounden duty of all stakeholders to ensure that young advocates find their feet and entrench their feet in the first two or three years of their practice so they do not wither away from the profession, specifically on account of financial constraints”.

“We understand the need, the necessity and the requirement for having such a legislation and also to further it, augment it and improve it, for the benefit of young advocates,” the court observed.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The bench also referred to Supreme Court rulings which noted that such attrition could lead to a form of professional “brain drain”, diminishing the Bar’s ability to attract and retain young and meritorious lawyers. “It comes as no surprise that the challenge is particularly acute for first-generation lawyers and those belonging to economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds,” the ruling said.

The Supreme Court in June this year had also suggested that the legal community “operationalise and popularise donations from successful lawyers and others who are directly concerned with the continued improvement of the legal fraternity”. Such funds could be made available to junior lawyers during the formative years of their professional careers.

Taking note of this, the high court said, “Young members of the Bar who enrol into the profession after completing their legal studies devote their lives to this noble profession, and such devotion needs to be sustained.”

The court also observed that despite provisions for financial assistance and welfare schemes under the Maharashtra Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 1981, for the benefit of young lawyers, “the mechanism appears to have fallen short”.

Accordingly, the bench directed the Maharashtra government and the BCI to file their affidavits within three weeks.