After Ex-President Vikas Singh, Senior EC Member Shobha Gupta Writes To SCBA President Kapil Sibal Highlighting Issues With Group Insurance Policy
In light of the pending SCBA elections in May 2025, several members, including senior lawyers, have called for a complete halt to financial disbursals over Rs. 50,000 without Finance Committee oversight and for a transparent, data-driven renegotiation of the insurance scheme.
Senior members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), including Senior Advocate Dr. Vikas Singh (former SCBA President), Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta (Senior Executive Member), and Advocate Yogamaya M.G. (Executive Committee Member), have written to President, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, highlighting issues with respect to the group medical insurance policy being implemented by the present Executive Committee.
According to them, the policy assumes that each of the 2828 SCBA members has 6 dependents, including two elderly parents and two children, and provides a coverage of Rs. 2 lakh per member at a premium of Rs. 35,400, totalling 16,968 lives and requiring a minimum guaranteed payment of Rs. 10.01 crore from SCBA’s funds. The letters demand the immediate scrapping of the policy and convening of a General Body Meeting (GBM), citing lack of consultation, faulty assumptions, and financial imprudence.
In a detailed letter dated April 29, 2025, addressed to the President of SCBA, Dr. Vikas Singh has written, “In my letter dated 28.04.2025, I had mentioned that the negotiated policy has a design problem and accordingly, we cannot go ahead and sign the policy as conceived.”
“The last subsisting insurance policy of 2021 was negotiated by me personally by involving the entire Executive Committee (EC) and spending hours with the insurance companies understanding how the policy works”, he added.
Explaining the issue with the current policy structure, Dr. Singh further wrote, “In the present negotiation, the insurance company was not told the profile of the members being insured, and was asked to provide a policy as if every voter (2828 members) comprises of 6 family members, 2 elderly parents up to the age of 90 and 2 children below the age of 25…Because of this fallacious presumption, the insurance company gave a preposterous proposal of Rs. 35,400 premium per member for a coverage of Rs. 2 lakhs only, asking for a minimum guarantee premium of Rs. 10,01,11,200... This has resulted in a highly unjust policy being made for the members of the SCBA, which will result in a huge wastage of the funds collected by you...”
He concluded by requesting Sibal to scrap this policy immediately and issue a circular opening the group insurance medical scheme to the needy members of the Bar, regardless of whether they are voters or not, and collecting the details of their family size.
Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta, in her letter of April 30, 2025, highlighted similar concerns and internal procedural breakdowns. She wrote, “Most of these issues we had also pointed out, and as a matter of fact this proposal was never deliberated in detail in the EC…We were rather given an ultimatum to bring a better proposal or else they shall proceed with this, which we could not as the insurance companies or even best of the brokers in India with whom I interacted were asking for exact data of number of persons who would be taking the policy and their dependents...”
Discussing the dismissive attitude of the Executive Committee, she goes on to write, “But the approach in the EC was, either bring a better proposal or keep mum. The majority approach was—so why are you bothered, Sibal Sir is bringing money, members are getting insurance cover for free, then why are you making fuss.”
Gupta described the lack of process and checks stating, “The representative of the insurance company we saw only on 26.03.2025 as a surprise package when he suddenly cropped up without information to many of us, to collect the cheque, when the Hon’ble President suddenly said—ok let us handover the cheque to him of Rs. one crore... The exercise of EC to get the members to fill up the forms now after sealing the deal with the insurance company says it all—we have put the cart ahead of the horse.”
She called for a General Body Meeting to be convened on the issue, noting that over 344 members, including 240 voters, had signed letters supporting the demand.
She recommended, “I would appeal that a GBM is called on urgent basis, before proceeding further to give any amount to the Insurance Company... I would also suggest that no cheque of any amount for more than 50,000/- be issued for any purpose or against any single order without placing the same before the Finance Committee for approval.”
Advocate Yogamaya M.G., Executive Committee Member, in a formal representation dated April 30, 2025, wrote, “Despite raising repeated concerns regarding the insurance policy, it is deeply disappointing that the main office bearers continue to remain silent and unresponsive. I have personally submitted a formal letter addressing this issue and, in addition, submitted another representation bearing over 100 signatures from members of the Bar. Yet, there has been no acknowledgment or action from your end.”
She stated that as an elected member of the Executive Committee, she carried the responsibility of representing the voices and concerns of those who had entrusted her with their support.
“I urge you to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Kindly consider our representation and immediately call for an Executive Committee meeting, followed by a General Body Meeting to address the pressing concerns surrounding the insurance policy.”, she concluded her letter.
As of now, no official response has been received from the SCBA President or the Secretary of the SCBA.
Earlier this month, Shobha Gupta had written a sharply worded open letter criticising the functioning of the Executive Committee 2024–2025. In the letter, Gupta had criticised the culture of silence, marginalisation, and unchecked authority, especially concerning the roles of the SCBA President and Secretary.
