Bar Council of UP gives Rs 51L aid to needy lawyers

Kanpur: Bar Council of UP has provided a sum of Rs 51 lakhs to be given as financial assistance to the needy advocates during the Covid pandemic.
Yogendra Swarup, member of Bar Council of UP and Ankaj Mishra, vice-chairman Bar Council of UP, on Friday handed over a cheque of Rs 51 lakhs to Kapil Deep Sachan and Veer Bahadur Singh, general secretary of Kanpur Bar Association (KBA) and The Lawyers Association, respectively and Ashwani Anand, treasurer of KBA.
According to Kapil Deep, applications of advocates who require financial assistance are invited in between September 14 to 19. They will have to submit their applications to their respective associations. An eight-member screening committee would examine the applications and financial assistance would be given to those whose applications would be sanctioned by the screening panel.
The KBA general secretary said allocated funds would be transferred directly into the accounts of the needy advocates. Talking to TOI, Sachan said a criteria has been made under which advocates having income more than 2.5 lakhs per annum, and if he/she is income tax payee or having a four-wheeler, own house or parental house or have agricultural land around 2 acres and retired from government job would not be entitled for financial assistance.
A format of application had already been released and it was available at Kanpur Bar Association and The Lawyers Association notice board. Needy advocates have to apply in that format for financial assistance, he added.
Moreover, the Bar Council of India is also asking for an undertaking that if the information given in the format for financial assistance is found wrong, then an applicant would be liable for disciplinary and other action, he added.