In a welfare state the people of all shades and opinions seek their welfare in lieu of services they render in furtherance of the causes of larger public interests and same holds good for the lawyers of Jammu & Kashmir like their counterparts in other parts of the country. The lawyers doing a great job of counselling people on institutional, constitutional and administrative matters also reserve the right to think about their own welfare and accordingly seek certain concessions from the Government for their welfare. Lawyers in Jammu & Kashmir were talking about their welfare for last several decades but successive popular governments of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state never ever bothered to even think about welfare of the lawyers in view of their huge contributions in counselling people both within and outside the government on institutional, constitutional and administrative matters concerning people in general and government in particular. Denying people of one or the other section of society their rights availed by their contemporaries in rest of the country amounts to discrimination disallowed and condemned in a welfare society. So the relief availed under advocate’s welfare fund by lawyers in rest of the country but by not their contemporaries in Jammu & Kashmir was by all standards of understandabilities a discrimination which should have been removed long back. The decision of the Jammu & Kashmir Government to provide due relief to the lawyers of Jammu & Kashmir as is being provided to their contemporaries in rest of the country under Advocates Welfare Fund Act is as such a historical step the implementation of which would by all probabilities bring long awaited relief to the lawyers’ fraternity in Jammu & Kashmir .
Since the modalities for payment of exgratia & compensation for cessation of court practice to lawyers suffering from serious health issues and exgratia to those dying due to critical health issues are be worked out now by the Advocates Welfare Fund Trustee Committee, it is for the Advocates Welfare Fund Trustee Committee to start functioning for the purposes of implementing Avocates Welfare Fund Act as per the prescribed guidelines at the earliest in Jammu & Kashmir. Early implantation of Advocates Welfare Fund Act would by all standards of understandabilities bring respite to a huge no of lawyers across Jammu & Kashmir.
The implementation of the Advocates Welfare Fund Act is likely to begin with the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir Advocates Welfare Fund Trustee Committee which would mostly likely comprise of two officers from the J&K Government, two advocates to be nominated by J&K High Court and one Government Pleader to be nominated by the Government. Since the modalities for payment of exgratia & compensation for cessation of court practice to lawyers suffering from serious health issues and exgratia to those dying due to critical health issues are be worked out now by the Advocates Welfare Fund Trustee Committee, it is for the Advocates Welfare Fund Trustee Committee to start functioning for the purposes of implementing Avocates Welfare Fund Act as per the prescribed guidelines at the earliest in Jammu & Kashmir. Early implantation of Advocates Welfare Fund Act would by all standards of understandabilities bring respite to a huge no of lawyers across Jammu & Kashmir.
