Cuttack, Nov. 22: Demand for monthly stipend for junior lawyers in Odisha has received fresh impetus with the filing of a petition in Orissa High Court.

The Bar Council of India had suggested the scheme for giving stipend of Rs 2,000 to each junior lawyer, below 25 years, who is enrolled with a State Bar Council and Bar Association in which one is practising. The demand was first raised in Odisha a month ago in a memorandum to chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Dillip Kumar Mohapatra, a member of the High Court Bar Association, had demanded “immediate steps and direction to grant stipend from their date of enrolment to young lawyers of Odisha, whose annual income is less than Rs 24,000”.

“No stipend is being given by the Odisha government to junior advocates for their sustenance in the legal profession as it is being provided by the Karnataka government,” the lawyer said in his letter the chief minister on October 17.

The memorandum was followed up with a reminder letter on November 4 to the chief secretary and secretaries of the finance department and the law department. “Although other states have already started paying stipend to young or fresh advocates, our state has not yet introduced or formulated similar type of scheme for the advocates,” the letter pointed out.

As the memorandum evoked no response, Mohapatra has filed a PIL in Orissa High Court.

“It is difficult for young lawyers to survive after starting their practice at high court in Cuttack or Bhubaneswar or other district headquarters as most of them are from poor families in rural areas,” the PIL contends.

“Most of the law students, on completion of their course, are starting their profession as lawyer after paying huge amount (nearly Rs 23,000) towards registration fees for enrolment with the Odisha State Bar Council, incurring loans from their friends and relatives because of the economic condition of their families. They are neither being financed by financial institutions nor given any stipend by the state government,” the petition contends.

The stipend, a pressing need of junior advocates, was to be given to those lawyers, who were with the bar for at least two years from the date they actually started practice in courts, the council had suggested.

The PIL has further sought high court’s intervention for construction of hostels for junior lawyers and law students in Cuttack and other districts of Odisha.

“The state government has the obligation for providing essential commodities to junior lawyers at subsidised rates as it is being provided to students of other educational institutions such as medical and engineering colleges, fixing guidelines to that effect,” the PIL further contends.

According to the petition, around 43,000 lawyers enrolled with the Odisha State Bar Council were practising in different courts across the state.