‘Law graduates need stipend for initial years of struggle’

Students unions have written to the state government pressing for a stipend of Rs 5000 for fresh graduates but to no avail Meanwhile Karnataka has already implemented stipend for lawyers and Kerala is set to implement it soon Maharashtra however had a similar scheme in 1981 which was scrapped a year latermidday on May 12 reported how the students demanded the stipend on the lines of Karnataka and Kerala in a meeting with the higher and technical education minister Uday SamantAdvocate Vasant Salunke chairman of Maharashtra and Goa including Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Bar Council said ldquoOur bar council has been writing time and again to the state government for the past three decades requesting them to start a monthly stipend But till date our plea has gone unheard It usually takes between three to five years for young law graduates to lay hands on their practice and clients independently and therefore the need for providing this stipend was mootedrdquoldquoDuring the tenure of Babasaheb Bhosale he had introduced a stipend of Rs 300 for law graduates but after a year with his exit as CM the practice came to a haltrdquo said Salunke who practises at Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court since its inception 40 years agoWhen asked about the number of advocates registered with the Bar Council the chairman said ldquoWe have approximately 2 lakh registered advocates and on an average we get around 5000 law graduates registered every year However the number of registrations done last year was at an all time high with 23800 graduates registering with usrdquoOther statesldquoAs per my information around four to five states have already taken up proactive steps towards grant of stipend which include Kerala Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Telangana etc and the Delhi government has made budgetary provision of around Rs 50 crore to support lawyers in the national capitalrdquo said SalunkheAdvocate Joseph John secretary Bar Council of Kerala said ldquoThe government of Kerala had mooted the concept five years ago and the same will be implemented soon We have worked out the modalities and the fund will be released from the Kerala Advocates Welfare Fund Act wherein each beneficiary will be entitled for a stipend of Rs 3000 per month for a year to begin with subject to yearly review by the committee and subsequent eligibility approval by the Bar Council for KeralardquoT Gowda secretary Bar Council of Karnataka said ldquoThe government of Karnataka had introduced the scheme two years ago wherein a stipend of R2000 is paid to registered junior law graduates The entire activity is handled by the Law and Judiciary department of Karnataka and the bar council has no role in itrdquoWhat advocates and lawyer sayAdvocate A D Benny who practises in the District Court Thrissur for the last 32 years said ldquoThe fact is Kerala government announced the proposal in 2018 but unfortunately it is only on paper In practice fresh law graduates whose income is less than a lakh a year havenrsquot been getting any stipend from the Kerala governmentrdquoldquoIt is a welcome move that the Maharashtra government is contemplating providing a stipend to law freshers Lawyers hailing from humble backgrounds need such stipend for the initial period of strugglerdquo said Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal who practises in Bombay High Court ldquoThis profession is tough By 2223 you become a lawyer and at that age you are expected to earn but not many seniors offer stipend Lots of juniors donrsquot even get to join seniors This often leads to either change of profession or resorting to unethical means to generate funds It is detrimental to the profession as a wholerdquo said Advocate Swapnil AmbureldquoI sympathise with the fresh law graduates who donrsquot earn or earn less but the fault lies equally with them as some of them do not know the rudiments of law and donrsquot have an inclination to know as well Stipend will be easy money for them than learning the tough way on the jobrdquo said Edrich Miranda a legal advisor