Overview

• A PIL filed by 12 lawyers earning under ₹1 lakh annually seeks a ₹5,000 monthly stipend for practitioners with less than three years of experience.
• Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne questioned whether junior advocates have any statutory entitlement to such stipends or if funding them serves a genuine public interest.
• The bench raised concerns over financial feasibility after the Bar Council of India proposed higher stipends of ₹15,000 for rural and ₹20,000 for urban lawyers.
• Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa estimated the scheme would require about ₹155 crore annually and reported that the state government declined to establish a supporting financial corpus.
• Petitioners cited Delhi High Court directions and similar state-level schemes, prompting the bench to demand detailed legal and fiscal justification at the next hearing.