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The Supreme Court has today dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the Centre to provide compensation of Rs. 50 Lakh to families of Advocates who died due to Covid-19 and were below the age of 60 years.

A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice BV Nagarathna said, "People have died in the country and you want compensation for the lawyers."

Pointing out issues with finding accommodation due to being "lawyers" without any sources of income, the PIL filed by Adv. Pradeep Kumar Yadav states that, "the survival of advocates is only on cases/ briefs, they have no other source of income nor anybody in the society comes forward to help them, therefore it is often seen that many landlords don't prefer tenant who are Advocates or family of Advocates." 

Seeking help for these "Officers of the Court" the plea sought for additional monetary help to be provided to advocates, citing that survival of advocates is dependent on cases/ briefs and advocates have no other sources of income with immediate effect.

Noting that the grounds were not relevant to the directions sought in the PIL, the bench dismissed the petition terming it "publicity interest litigation" and asked the petitioner, "What do you think, we don't read the petitions?"

Case Title: Pradeep Kumar Yadav Vs. Union of India