Delhi High Court issues notice to Centre, BCI, RBI in petition seeking inclusion of advocates as 'Professionals' under MSME Act

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to include 'Advocates' under the definition of 'professionals' for access to welfare schemes of Government of India under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006. [Abhijit Mishra vs Union of India].A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh of the Delhi High Court issued notice to Ministry of Finance, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry, Bar Council of India and the Reserve Bank of India. "We are issuing notice to the respondents. Advocate Anil Soni along with the Additional Solicitor General, Chetan Sharma and Advocate Devesh Dubey accept the notice. The notice shall stand returnable on October 12," the Court ordered. Petitioner, advocate Abhijit Mishra, who appeared in-person, submitted that currently the MSME Ministry does not consider the 'profession of advocates' under the definition of the term 'professionals' when it comes to accessing benefits related to welfare schemes under the MSME Act, 2006. He further contended that the current eligibility requirements of GSTN, Business Pan and TAN are mandatory requirements for access to development schemes under the Act and termed these as against the welfare of advocates.Moreover, it was submitted that the Government of India has not passed any schemes for the benefit of advocates, highlighting the lack of provisions for purchasing of equipment like laptops, printers, etc for accessing virtual courts.The petition filed by Mishra prayed for directions to be issued to the Department of Financial Services to work in tandem with the Bar Council of India for the formulation of banking products and schemes for the benefits of lawyers. It also sought directions to be issued to the RBI for issuance of guidelines, instructions and notifications to banks to provide collateral-free loans to advocates under Section 20 of the MSME Act, 2006.The plea also prayed for initiation of digital training or online training programmes for lawyers. The plea challenged the criteria to access the welfare schemes that fall under the aegis of the MSME Act, 2006 and contended that the current criteria for inclusion under the said schemes is highly biased and restrictive towards advocates.“Prejudiced eligibility criteria of having GSTN, Business PAN, TAN as mandatory requirement in order to be eligible to access the development schemes of the Government of India is against the welfare of the Advocates,” the petition read.The matter will be heard again on October 12..PIL is for downtrodden: Delhi HC dismisses PIL seeking inclusion of advocates under MSME Act.The High Court had in July 2020 dismissed a similar PIL by the same petitioner. The present petition said that while dismissing that plea, the High Court had given liberty to move the Court in appropriate cases.