[(1) Any advocate may apply to the Secretary, Trustees Committee in such form as may be prescribed, for admission as a members of the Scheme.
(2) Every applicant shall pay in the prescribed manner an admission fee of one hundred rupees in lump sum with the application.
(3) The Trustees Committee may, on receipt of the application and the admission fee, make such inquiry as it deems fit and shall either admit the applicant to the membership of the Scheme, or for reasons to be recorded in writing, reject the application and refund the amount paid towards admission fee :
Provided that no application shall be rejected unlss the applicant has been given an opportunity of being heard.
(4) The membership of an applicant so admitted shall be deemed to have commenced on the first day of January of the year in which the application was made or the date of enrolment of the applicant as an Advocate, whichever is later.
(5) Every member of the Scheme shall pay in the prescribed manner an annual subscription for every calendar year on or before the thirty-first day of December of that year at the rate of
(a) fifty rupees, where he has practised as an advocate for not more than 5 years;
(b) one hundred rupees, where he has practisd as an advocate for more than 5 years but not more than 10 years;
(c) two hundred and fifty rupees, where he has practised as an advocate for more than 10 years.
[Provided that the Government Advocates shall pay an additional amount of rupees fifty per annum with their annual subscription for every calendar year or part thereof during their tenure as Government Advocate;
Provided further that a member at his option may make one time payment of life subscription of rupees three thousand and in the case of his being Government Advocate rupees three thousand five hundred :
Provided also that the State Government may, after consultation with the Trustees Committee, by a notified order, vary the rates of annual and life subscription.]
ExplanationFor the purposes of this sub-section,
(i) practice as an advocate includes practice as a pleader or other legal practitioner enrolled under the Legal Practitioners Act, 1879 or as an Advocate on the roll of any Bar Council constituted under the Advocates Act, 1961;
(ii) the period of practice shall be reckoned as on the first day of the calendar year for which the subscription is payable or the date of enrolment as a legal practitioner or an Advocate, whichever is later.]
[(iii) Government Advocate means an Advocate engaged by the Government or a body, authority or corporation owned or controlled by the Government to represent it before a court, tribunal, authority or a person who received any amount by way of retainership or monthly allowance from the Government or such body, authority or corporation, as the case may be.]