HC declines to entertain PIL to consider lawyers as professionals under MSME Act

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a PIL seeking inclusion of lawyers in the definition of professionals so that they can access the various schemes under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development Act, 2006.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a PIL seeking inclusion of lawyers in the definition of professionals so that they can access the various schemes under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development Act, 2006. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said that PILs are filed for the poor, downtrodden, illiterate or those for whom accessing courts is difficult and lawyers do not come under that category.

"You (petitioner) are misunderstanding the concept of PILs. We are not inclined to entertain it. We are dismissing it," the bench said. It said that as and when a lawyer moves the court with such a prayer, it will look into it and dismissed the petition by Abhijit Mishra, a financial economist, who contended that MSME Ministry does not consider advocates as eligible professionals for the various schemes under the Act.

Mishra, in the petition filed through advocate Payal Bahl, had said that under the MSME Act the eligibility criteria of having a Goods and Service Tax Identification Number (GSTIN), business PAN or Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) as mandatory requirement to access the development schemes is against the welfare of the advocates. Bahl, after the hearing, told PTI that the high court''s order would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

The petition claimed that by virtue of the services provided by lawyers to their clients, they can be considered under the definition of enterprise as given in the MSME Act.

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