TN’s Rs 3K monthly stipend extended to SOEL graduates

SOEL students were earlier left out on the claim that they pay higher fees when compared to those who graduate from other government law colleges. 

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy offered the ruling on pointing out that there may be students from poor economic backgrounds who have gone to SOEL on scholarship and hence such students ought to be covered by the GO if they satisfy other criteria. 

The GO issued on June 30, 2020, had announced the grant of Rs 3,000 as a monthly stipend for a two-year period to junior lawyers, who have obtained a bachelor’s degree in law from a government law college; who have enrolled with the Bar Council of TN and Puducherry; who have filed an affidavit attesting that they are practising law; and whose family income is not more than Rs 2.5 lakh. 

Conceding to the petitioner’s contention that there are many downtrodden students at SOEL who should be covered by the GO, the bench said: “Merely because a junior lawyer meeting the other eligibility criteria obtained the bachelor degree from School of Excellence, established and run by Dr Ambedkar Law University, would not imply that such lawyer had obtained the bachelor’s degree in law from an institution other than a government law college within the meaning of the expression in the notification.” 

Based on this, the bench directed the government to extend the benefit of the stipend to all eligible junior lawyers meeting the eligibility criteria even if such lawyer has obtained a bachelor’s degree in law from the School of Excellence run by Dr Ambedkar Law University.