Demand raised for minimum security deposit and rent in interest of young, women and struggling advocates
Prayagraj: Senior advocate Dharmendra Pratap Singh, candidate for the post of General Secretary of the High Court Bar Association, submitted a memorandum addressed to the Honorable Chief Justice and Chairman of the Chamber Allotment Committee, demanding reduction in the proposed security deposit and monthly rent for the allotment of newly constructed chambers. In the memorandum, he said that the proposed security deposit and monthly rent exceed the financial capacity of most young, female, budding and struggling advocates. A large number of advocates are running their practices with limited resources and income, hence the high fees will put an unnecessary financial burden on them.
He said that the purpose of providing chambers in the court complex is to provide better working facilities to lawyers and make judicial work more smooth and effective. If fees are set too high, many qualified lawyers may be deprived of this important facility.
Dharmendra Pratap Singh demanded that the security deposit be kept symbolic and minimal, and that the monthly rent be determined based on the actual financial situation of lawyers. He also demanded special relief for young and struggling lawyers, safe and comfortable chambers and canteen facilities for women lawyers, chamber allocation with furniture, and the elimination of the term “tenant” for lawyers.
He stated that the interests of advocates should be given top priority when formulating a chamber allocation policy, so that no advocate is deprived of this facility due to financial reasons. A signature campaign in support of this demand received widespread support from advocates. Thousands of advocates signed petitions opposing the proposed fee system and demanding the implementation of a fair and practical policy.
On this occasion, advocates Sunil Singh, Avnish Upadhyay, Damodar Singh, M.K. Rajpal, Manjeet Gupta, Avinash Ojha, Nitish Kumar Soni, Keshav Singh, Krishna Thakur, Rishabh Singh, Sarvaswa Thakur, Himanshu Dwivedi, Mohammad Farooq, Mohammad Ayub, and Parameshwar Chaudhary, along with many other lawyers, were present. Dharmendra Pratap Singh expressed hope that the Chamber Allotment Committee would take a positive and just decision on this matter, keeping in mind the problems of the lawyer community and the broader judicial interests.
