A Division Bench of the Madras High Court, comprising of Justices N. Kirubakaran and R. Pongiappan while dealing with a Writ Petition pertaining to Group Health Insurance for Advocates enrolled in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry- observed that State and insurance companies should formulate a policy related to Health insurance of the Advocates. The Court constituted a Committee to suggest effective guidelines for the same.
“Taking into consideration, around 65,000 advocates are on the rolls of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, as on date, who have got Certificate of Place of Practice, their interests should be taken care of as they do not have any Health Insurance Policy and this Court would constitute a Committee for the same.”
Factual Background
The above observation was made by the Court while dealing with a Writ Petition which had been filed by Mrs. Sudha Ramalingam, a learned Senior Member of the Bar for the issue of a Writ of Mandamus directing respondents to forthwith formulate and put in place a Group Health Insurance (Medi Claim Policy) for advocates enrolled with the Bar Council and their dependent family members.
Court Reasoning & Judgment
The Court considered the present view in the wake of the COVID pandemic in which many advocates had lost their lives and their family members suffered a lot and expressed that:
“around 65,000/- advocates are on the rolls of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, as on date, who have got Certificate of Place of Practice, their interests should be taken care of as they do not have any Health Insurance Policy. On account of Covid Pandemic, many advocates lost their lives due to lack of Mediclaim Policy.”
The Court was also of the view that there were many insurance companies that were insuring the advocates but the amount was huge and without the interference of the State, it would not be possible for the insurance companies. The Court further ordered to constitute a committee of nine members headed by the Advocate General and comprising of other members as follows:
(1) Mrs. Sudha Ramalingam (Learned Senior Member of the Bar)
(2) Mr.N. Vijayaraghavan (Learned Member of the Bar, an expert in Insurance Laws)
(3) Mr.S. Arunkumar (Learned Member of the Bar, Standing Counsel for National Insurance Company)
(4) Mr.R. Sankaranarayanan (Additional Solicitor General)
(5) Mr.M.R. Sivasubramaniam (Bar council Member)
(6) Mr.P. Manoharan (Former Senior Divisional Manager, National Insurance company Limited)
(7) Mr.C.K. Chandrasekaran (Learned Member of the Bar, Standing counsel for Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) and
(8) Ms.Devika (Learned Member of the Bar).
The Court also mentioned the functioning of the Committee as:
“Mr.P.H. Arvindh Pandian, learned Additional Advocate General will be the co-ordinator of the Committee and the Member Secretary of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be the Convenor of the Committee, who will intereact with representatives of various Insurance Companies and suggest viable proposals so that all the advocates can be covered. Mr.N.Vijayaraghavan, learned counsel has already filed a typed set of papers and the same can be placed. The members need not be physically present in the meeting and they are at liberty to participate virtually.”
Case Details
Case: W.P. No. 13047 of 2020
Quorum: Justices N. Kirubakaran and R. Pongiappan
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