1. These two petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution are filed by the Advocates enrolled by the Bar Council of Bihar. The common issue raised in both these writ petitions is the validity of sub-section (3) of Section 1 of the Bihar State Advocates Welfare Act, 1983 in so far as it debars a class of Advocates from being members of the Welfare Fund.

2. The petitioner in C.W.J.C. No. 8713 of 2008 was one Kedar Nath Tiwari, an Advocate practising in the Patna High Court. Pending the petition the petitioner has passed away. He has been substituted by his heirs and legal representatives, the wife and the sons. The writ petitioner Shri Kedar Nath Tiwari claimed that he had joined the legal profession in the month of April 1991 after retirement from the Indian Air Force and that he was practising as an Advocate in the High Court of Patna.

3. We assume that as a retired officer of the Indian Air Force he had received the terminal benefits and was in receipt of pension from the Central Government.

4. The petitioner Basudeo Sharan is a retired Judicial Officer in receipt of pension from the State of Bihar. After taking voluntary retirement from the judicial service in the yea