Bar Council to focus on e-libraries to help lawyers

By Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: To help advocates attending courts at hobli and taluk level courts, the Karnataka State Bar Council has decided to focus on opening libraries and e-libraries this year.

“Our focus is to enable advocates in hoblis and taluks to become aware of the latest judgments delivered by Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court on various issues. Many advocates practising in the taluk and hobli courts cannot afford to come to Bengaluru to buy law books and so the E-libraries will be a great help to such advocates,’’ said Karnataka State Bar Council chairman Motakpalli Kashinath.

Mr Kashinath assumed office as the chairman of Karnataka State Bar Council on Monday. “The need of the hour is to adopt technology in the field of advocacy for the benefit of advocates. There are no libraries at many taluk and hobli-level courts,’’ said the chairman.

Promising to take up various issues pertaining to advocates’ welfare across the state, he said that he would approach the state government to extend financial assistance to newly enrolled advocates. “Another demand is to provide financial assistance to junior advocates with less than 10 years practice. Many of them have suffered during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bar Council has succeeded in convincing the state government to provide financial assistance to junior advocates,’’ he said.

According to him, there are 37,000 junior advocates with less than 10 years practice in the state. “Each junior advocate was provided Rs 5,000 financial assistance during the pandemic. The Bar Council has provided Rs 25,000 assistance to each advocate hospitalized and Rs 10,000 to those in home isolation during the pandemic,’’ he said. He said that 1634 advocates died of Covid and Rs 8 lakh was given to each of the families of the deceased advocates from the advocates’ welfare fund. “I, along with committee members, will meet the State Law Minister and Chief Minister to propose an insurance scheme for advocates. We want the state government to pay the insurance premium on behalf of advocates. We are also planning to increase the death fund given to advocates who passed away from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and to increase it to Rs 15 lakh if the state government provides financial assistance,’’ he said.