The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) to write to 250 plus Bar associations in the State and obtain details of their members, the latter’s spouses and two dependent children so that quotations could be obtained from insurance companies for providing health insurance cover to them.
Justices N. Kirubakaran and R. Pongiappan issued the direction on a public interest litigation petition filed by activist advocate Sudha Ramalingam, who pointed out that many lawyers and their families faced a harrowing time during the first and second wave of COVID-19 in the absence of health insurance.
The lawyer suggested that the government could contribute a part of the premium to provide insurance cover to around 60,000 lawyers and their family members, and the remaining amount could be collected from all lawyers through sale of stamps to be affixed in every Vakalatnama (authorisation given by litigants to their lawyers).
Accepting her submission, the judges had constituted a committee, headed by the Advocate General, to work out the modalities in consultation with insurance companies and come up with a concrete proposal to be forwarded to the government.
On Monday, the court was informed that the insurance companies were able to give a tentative quote of ₹100 crore because the Bar Council was not in a position to provide exact data regarding the lawyers and their family members. The judges were informed that collection of proper data alone would help in obtaining a final quote of the premium.
