The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to state what enhancement it proposes to make to the ₹5 lakh compensation payable to dependents of advocates who die an untimely death, noting that the amount has remained unchanged for more than a decade even as the corpus under the financial assistance scheme has grown substantially.
A Division Bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Garima Prashad passed the direction. The issue arose after the petitioner sought interest on the delayed disposal of her application for compensation. The Court examined the functioning of the State’s two advocate welfare schemes and the large number of pending claims.
The Court noted that the corpus under the Financial Assistance Scheme had increased from an initial ₹20 crore to ₹330 crore, with the State Government making a ₹100 crore contribution in 2024-25. However, the compensation payable to dependents has continued to remain at ₹5 lakh since the 2015 Government Order. The Bench observed:
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“the financial assistance was determined as Rs.5 Lakh for dependents of an advocate. More than 10 years have passed since then. The corpus, which was Rs.20 Crore, has swollen to Rs.330 Crore, but the compensation amount has remained static at Rs.5 Lakh, which does not appear to be a happy situation.”
The Court also focused on the delay in processing claims. It was informed that 1,207 applications were pending because of deficiencies in documents and other details. At a Trust meeting held on August 10, 2026, 436 applications were taken up, of which 268 were disposed of and compensation was being released, while the remaining applications were returned to the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh for verification. The Bench criticised the Bar Council for forwarding incomplete applications to the Trust, observing:
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“We fail to understand as to why the Bar Council sends to Trust such applications with insufficient details or forwards deficient application for not being accompanied by relevant material documents that results in delayed disposal of the applications.”
The Court directed the Bar Council to complete the formalities and forward the deficient applications back to the Trust within 30 days, failing which its Secretary would have to remain personally present before the Court.
The Bench further found that the Trust was relying only on the interest generated from the corpus to make payments. The interest was stated to be ₹5.64 crore per quarter, approximately ₹22.4 crore annually, which would permit payment in only around 440 cases a year. With 939 applications still pending, the Court said that relying solely on interest would not be sufficient to clear all claims.
The Court therefore directed the Trust to seek additional financial assistance from the State Government for disposal of all the pending applications. It further directed that if the Government delayed providing the funds, the Trust would liquidate its fixed deposits from the corpus to pay the compensation without undue delay.
Finally, the Court directed the State Government to file an affidavit setting out the amount it proposes to provide as enhanced compensation. It also directed the Bar Council to file an affidavit explaining the guidelines it follows for expeditiously forwarding applications of dependents of deceased advocates.
The matter has been listed for October 5, 2026.
