New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) A plea has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking financial assistance for lawyers enrolled with Bar Council of Delhi (BCD), irrespective of their state of residence, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The petition, which was listed before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan on Thursday, has also sought a moratorium on EMIs and loan repayments till the situation normalises.

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The bench recused from hearing the matter and said it would be heard by the bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad on September 8.

The petition, by lawyer Sunil Kumar Tiwari, has contended that imposition of interest on loans and credit card payments during the moratorium has defeated the purpose of the same.

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The plea, filed through advocate Mukesh Kumar Singh, has claimed that during the prevalent pandemic neither the Centre nor the Delhi government provided any financial assistance to lawyers, but they did provide economic relief and other aid to corporates, industries and labourers.

It has said that the only relief for indigent lawyers came from BCD which gave a one time financial help of Rs 5,000 to such advocates.

However, this amount was not all sufficient for their survival, it has also said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)