Junior lawyers cannot be exploited by seniors without paying even minimum stipend, says Madras High Court

Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan say it is the duty of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to protect the interests of junior lawyers by formulating necessary guidelines

Exploitation, at no circumstance, can be permitted or appreciated, say the judges.

It is the duty of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) to ensure that no young lawyer in the State as well as the Union Territory gets exploited by their seniors by extracting work without even paying minimum stipend, the Madras High Court has said.

“Exploitation, at no circumstance, can be permitted or appreciated. Therefore, it is the function of the Bar Council to ensure that the livelihood of these lawyers are protected by fixing minimum stipend,” a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan wrote.

The judges granted time till June 12 for BCTNP counsel C.K. Chandrasekar to get instructions from the council on formulating the guidelines to be followed by the established lawyers while engaging fresh law graduates or other junior counsel to assist them in their professional work.

The interim direction was issued on a writ petition filed by Farida Begam complaining about the Advocates Welfare Fund scheme not being implemented effectively in Puducherry. During the course of hearing, the judges found that several applications under the scheme were pending in Tamil Nadu too.

Since delay in release of funds by the respective governments was cited as the reason for the welfare fund scheme not being implemented effectively, the judges suo motu included the State of Tamil Nadu too as a party to the writ petition and granted a week’s time for both the governments to respond.

Incidentally, the judges took up the issue of junior lawyers not being paid stipend by their seniors and asked the BCTNP to revert on the issue of formulating necessary guidelines.