Law Ministry to launch cohesive insurance scheme for lawyers

After holding several rounds of discussions with various stakeholders, the Law Ministry is ready to launch a cohesive insurance scheme for lawyers.

The scheme includes medical, maternity, accidental and lifebenefits. Back in February, advocates in the capital and across many states,had held protests criticising the government for denying budgetary allocationfor their welfare.

   

The government has pinned down three kinds of insurancepolicies. First, a group life insurance policy – in the event of death of thepolicyholder, a sum of Rs 10 lakh will be paid to the nominee/next of kin.Second, medical insurance policy – mediclaim/healthcare policy of Rs 2.5 lakhto advocates and their family members, and personal accident policy up to Rs 5 lakh.

The premium payable by advocates would depend upon thenumber of family members.

The mediclaim policy may cover pre-existing diseases andailments without any waiting period and might include maternity benefits.”The policy may be a floater policy and the insured sum can be utilised byany of the family members under the scheme”, claims the policy note. Thegroup personal accident policy might cover permanent total disablement, and theinsured amount will be Rs 5 lakh.

According to the concept note of the scheme, “a personenrolled as an advocate in any roll under the provisions of the Advocates Actis eligible, excluding the lawyers designated as senior advocates.”

At the core, the scheme will benefit advocates at thedistrict and taluka level, who often do not have any kind of social securityfor themselves and their families, especially in case of medical emergency anddeath.

“Advocates should have membership of a recognized BarAssociation and voluntarily agree to give annual monetary contribution”,said the concept note. The government is yet to decide on the exact name–Pradhan Mantri/Vidhi Mantri Adhivakta Bima Yojna, 2019.

The Department of Legal Affairs will administer theinsurance scheme through a committee headed by the Secretary. The government iskeen to include representatives from Department of Legal Affairs, Bar Councilof India, insurance companies (one from life insurance company and one fromnon-life insurance company), and Department of Expenditure – on the committee.

The committee will hold consultations and negotiations with life insurance and non life insurance companies (preferably PSUs), and then finalize terms and conditions of the insurance policies, and the premium amount to be deposited each year. “The committee shall also recommend the amount to be given by the Centre each year from budgetary allocation. The committee shall maintain record of all beneficiaries of the scheme,” said the policy note. Various stakeholders’ will be engaged to raise funds for the scheme – central grant, contribution by Bar Associations, contribution by individual advocate, and voluntary donations. IANS

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