Bombay High Court asks bar council to help 72-year-old lawyer

The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa to immediately give Rs5,000 as financial aid to a 72-year-old woman lawyer who is sick and has no source of income.

A bench of justices VM Kanade and BP Colabawalla was hearing a letter written by the lawyer to chief justice Mohit Shah who had suo motu converted it into a petition and placed it before a bench.

The letter said that the lawyer had no source of income and her children and relatives were not looking after her. She had sought sustenance allowance from the court.

The court was informed by advocate general Anil Singh about the schemes in place to help the aged. "The Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojna and Annapoorna food grain scheme are there to help such people in distress. Under the Annapoorna scheme, 10kg of food grains is distributed free of cost and this can be availed by the woman," he said.

However, the advocate appearing for the woman informed the court that the senior citizen had no cooking articles at her home and thus would not be able to use the free ration supplied by the state.

Adjourning the matter for four weeks, the court has asked the state government and the Centre to introduce schemes for senior citizens who do not have any source of income. It also asked government lawyers to disclose various schemes under which financial help be given to the woman lawyer.