Advocates have rental arrears of chambers

Chennai: Pointing out a huge backlog of rental arrears from practising advocates, who have been allotted chambers on the Madras high court premises, the court authorities have published in the cause list on Tuesday names of advocates and their unpaid rental amounts.The high court has allotted nearly 500 chambers to practising advocates on the basis of their seniority and other relevant
considerations.

Depending on the room size, two to eight advocates were clubbed together during allotment and each of them must pay a rent of Rs166 per month besides Rs 83 per month towards maintenance.
They have to pay electricity charges separately.There has been default in rentals and despite several notices, as nothing worked out, the court’s cause list prominently carried the names of nearly 550 advocates.

Together they owe Rs 26.44 lakh in rental arrears. Granting time till July 10 to clear the dues, the notification, signed by V. Vijayan, registrar (administration) informed the occupants of the chambers that the allotment of chambers would be cancelled without further notice in case of advocates who had more than '3,000 as arrears as on June 1.