Madras High Court Constitutes Committee To Make Recommendations On Insurance Cover For 65,000 Lawyers

Stating that many advocates have lost their lives amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Madras High Court recently constituted a 9-membered Committee to give recommendations with regard to medical insurance coverage to advocates. The Committee will hold talks with both the State Government and the Insurance companies to devise a Group Health Insurance for approximately 65,000 Advocates registered with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The scheme will also possibly extend to the family members of such Advocates. The direction was made by a Division Bench comprising of Justices N. Kirubakaran and R. Pongiappan which noticed that many advocates lost their lives during the pandemic, due to lack of Mediclaim Policy. "Around 65,000 advocates are on the rolls of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, as on date, who have got Certificate of Place of Practice…Their interests should be taken care of as they do not have any Health Insurance Policy," the Bench observed at the outset. The matter was brought up in a petition filed by Mrs. Sudha Ramalingam, a Senior Member of the Bar, seeking a direction to the Bar Council to forthwith formulate a Mediclaim Policy for advocates enrolled with in the State, and their dependent family members After taking stock of the prevailing situation, the High Court has constituted a Committee to be headed by the Advocate General, who is the leader of the Bar, the ex-officio Chairman of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the Chairman of Advocates' Welfare Fund. The following persons are nominated as members of the said Committee: Sudha Ramalingam (Senior Member of the Bar) N. Vijayaraghavan (Member of the Bar, an expert in Insurance Laws) S. Arunkumar (Member of the Bar, Standing Counsel for National Insurance Company)R. Sankaranarayanan (Additional Solicitor General)MR Sivasubramaniam (Bar council Member)P. Manoharan (Former Senior Divisional Manager, National Insurance company Limited)CK Chandrasekaran (Member of the Bar, Standing counsel for Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry)Devika (Member of the Bar) Further, Additional Advocate General PH Arvindh Pandian will be the co-ordinator of the Committee. Member Secretary of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be the Convenor of the Committee. They will interact with representatives of various Insurance Companies and suggest viable proposals so that all the advocates can be covered. Click Here To Download OrderRead Order

Madras High Court Constitutes Committee To Make Recommendations On Insurance Cover For 65,000 Lawyers

Akshita Saxena

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