The Allahabad High Court has issued a directive to the State government to consider increasing the compensation awarded to the families of deceased advocates under the ‘Financial Assistance Scheme for Advocates.’ This directive was made in the case of Jyotima v State of UP and 2 Others.
A Division Bench composed of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Garima Prasad highlighted that while the compensation amount has been stagnant at ₹5 lakh since 2015, the scheme’s corpus has significantly grown from ₹20 crore to ₹330 crore. The Court expressed concern regarding the unchanged compensation amount and urged the government to reassess the situation.
The Bench stated, “Let the Government come up with an affidavit regarding the proposed enhanced compensation amount under the financial assistance scheme. We leave it to the wisdom of the State Government. If a proper affidavit is not filed by the next date, the Court will be compelled to take a serious view of the matter.”
This direction emerged from a petition filed by a widow of an advocate, who sought interest due to the delayed processing of her compensation application. She applied in 2020, but received the payment only in 2025. On July 7, the Court demanded an explanation from the Member Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Advocate Welfare Fund Trustee Society, Lucknow, concerning the delay in disbursing compensation to eligible dependents.
In response, the Court was informed that the applications are processed through the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh. Due to non-compliance with guidelines, applications often remain pending or are returned to the State Bar Council for further verification. Currently, there are 1,207 pending applications.
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The Court criticized the Bar Council for its delays in application verification, noting that it already has a roll of registered advocates. “We fail to understand why the Bar Council forwards applications with insufficient details, resulting in delayed processing,” the Bench remarked.
The Court also noted that the trust was utilizing only the interest generated from the corpus for compensation payments, leading to further delays. “Every dependent is entitled to ₹5,00,000 under the scheme, and interest earnings alone may not suffice,” the Court explained.
The Court directed the trust to begin using the main fund corpus for compensation payments and advised seeking additional financial aid from the State if necessary. The trust was told to file an affidavit detailing proposed guidelines for expediting application processes.
It was highlighted that the interest generated is about ₹5.64 crore quarterly, amounting to roughly ₹22.4 crore annually, which can cover only about 440 applications. With 939 applications still pending, the Court advised the trust to utilize the corpus or request further state assistance.
The Court instructed the trust to request additional financial support from the State within 30 days and suggested that in case of government delay, the trust could liquidate fixed deposits to expedite compensation. “We hope the State Government will adopt a pragmatic approach in providing necessary financial assistance to the trust,” the Bench concluded.
The matter is scheduled for further hearing on October 5, with Advocate Kuar Singh representing the petitioner, and Additional Advocate General MC Chaturvedi and Additional Chief Standing Counsel PK Shahi representing the State. Advocates Abhishek Srivastava and Ashok Kumar Tiwari appeared for other respondents.
