Former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi urges Govt to release fund for distressed lawyers

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on August 14^th, 2020, demanded the government to release funds for the distressed lawyers amid the COVID-19 induced lockdown in the state.

“In this connection during my tenure, our government-sanctioned an amount of Rs 5 crore for advocates welfare fund under Bar Council and accordingly it was informed by LR & Secy. Judicial department on 17^th February 2016. But surprisingly it has come to my knowledge few days back that money has not been released yet,” Gogoi said.

Also read: Assam: 2675 hectares of cropland, 11,262 people still affected in flood

He further said, “For last five months non-functional of courts of all level cause immense hardships and denied justice to the people who have been deprived to get due justice. Besides all those associated with function of court like Advocates and others are also facing great hardships as a result of which yesterday a protest day was observed by the lawyers of different parts of the state for opening of the court. We don’t see any justification for keeping courts closed for a long time.”

The state is currently partial lockdown. The first phase of the lockdown was enforced in the country on March 24^th, 2020 which was later extended phase-wise to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

Assam has reported 2796 new COVID-19 cases pushing the state’s total to 71,795 in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate was 4.55%. Meanwhile, the death toll has increased to 169 with eight new deaths. Of 71795 total confirmed cases, 22,240 are still active and 49,383 have recovered.

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