Patna, Nov. 2: Scarcity of advocate welfare stamps and sale of fake stamps have hit the Advocates’ Welfare Fund that benefits families of lawyers in case of death or accident.

It is mandatory to paste a Rs 5 stamp on every affidavit or vakalatnama. The advocates’ next of kin are paid from the welfare fund according to the duration of their practice. Created through the Bihar Advocates Welfare Fund Act, 1983, which was implemented in 1987, the scheme receives funding from the sale proceeds of the advocates’ welfare stamps.

However, thanks to fake stamp rackets, the Bihar State Bar Council has expressed concern at the depleting fund.

At present, there are around a lakh advocates in the state and 50,000 of them are members of the Advocates’ Welfare Fund. These members, who deposit an entry fee of Rs 200 and an annual fee of Rs 100, avail the benefits of the scheme. The proceeds of the entire year received from the sale of welfare stamps is deposited with the advocate welfare trustee committee headed by the state advocate-general. The Bihar State Bar Council chairman, law secretary and three advocates are the members of this committee.

Bihar State Bar Council chairman Baleshwar Prasad Sharma told The Telegraph: “No affidavit or vakalatnama is accepted by any court or authorities concerned without the advocate welfare stamp of Rs 5. But the stamps are not available in various districts and sub-divisional courts leading to the sale of fake stamps in connivance with the state registration department and the district magistrates. This has resulted in a revenue loss to the fund.”

The registration department monitors the sale of stamps. It is the duty of the district magistrate to ensure the availability of the welfare stamps through the Bar associations, which are licensed by the government to sell them.

Sharma said: “We have written to the chief secretary to prevent the sale and purchase of fake welfare stamps. The main culprits are the district magistrates (DMs) who do not heed our complaints. If we try to pressurise them (the DMs), they create obstacles in making the stamps available to the Bar associations, which are the authorised bodies to sell the stamps. The non-cooperation of the DMs has been a blow to the advocate welfare scheme, as sale proceeds from the stamps are the only source of the Advocates Welfare Fund.”

The next of kin of the member advocates who die or meet with an accident are provided up to Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 1 lakh, respectively, said Sharma.

He added that a vigilance committee in every Bar association, set up by the council, found the allegations — of non-availability of advocates’ welfare stamps or of availability of fake stamps — to be true.

Sharma also said the council has repeatedly requested the government to set up franking machines to ensure the availability of advocate welfare stamps available to persons in need but at present, franking machines are installed at only four places — Patna High Court and at the district courts of Sasaram, Samastipur and Darbhanga.