The Bar Council of West Bengalon Thursday told the Calcutta High Court that it has adopted a resolution to provide financial assistance to lawyers hit by the COVID 19-induced lockdown.The council was responding to a PIL filed by Calcutta High Court Bar Association president Ashoke Kumar Dhandania, seeking direction to the statutory body to help legal practioners in need.Courts in the state, including the high court, are hearing only extremely urgent matters over video conferences owing to the shutdown.The chairman of the council filed an affidavit before the high court through its secretary informing that it has already taken a resolution to dole out aid to lawyers who were finding it difficult to get through the crisis.The division bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed that the plea will be heard again on April 30, while allowing the petitioner to submit a reply to the council's affidavit by April 29.The Calcutta High Court Bar Association president, in his letter to the high court during the second week of April, had invoked the provisions of the West Bengal Advocates' Welfare Fund Act, 1991 and the West Bengal Advocates' Welfare Corporation Act, 2012.The division bench, after taking up the letter as a PIL on April 16, noted that Dhandhania sought a direction to the West Bengal Bar Council "to frame a scheme for granting financial assistance to the lawyers who may require such assistance in view of the fact that work in the courts has come to a standstill".In its affidavit, the bar council said that lawyers would have to file an application online, and assistance would be doled out to them after verification.
