L-G finds lawyers’ appointment invalid

Jung urges MHA to term ‘null and void’ order on appointment of panel of advocates on record

Update: 2015-12-29 19:58 GMT

Jung urges MHA to term ‘null and void’ order on appointment of panel of advocates on record

In yet another setback to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung has reportedly written to the Union home ministry to term “null and void” the AAP government’s order on appointment of panel of advocates on record and arguing counsel for the Supreme Court. The lieutenant-governor is learnt to have told the home ministry that the AAP government’s order was not in accordance with the set procedures laid down in the law. Now, the ball is in the Centre’s court on whether to give green signal to the AAP order or declare it “null and void.”

A person can be registered as an advocate on record if he or she meets the requirements as laid down in the Supreme Court of India Rules, 1966. If a lawyer wants to practice as an advocate-on-record in the Supreme Court he or she needs an additional qualification. The advocate has to practice for four years as an advocate and thereafter has to intimate to the Supreme Court that he or she has started taking training with a senior advocate-on-record because he or she intends to become an advocate-on-record. After one year training, the advocate has to appear for an examination conducted by the Supreme Court itself. Once an advocate passes this examination, he or she must have a registered office within a radius of 10 miles from the Supreme Court building and a registered clerk. It is after this that the chamber judge of the Supreme Court accepts the person as an advocate-on-record.

It was only on December 11 that the government had passed an order on appointment of three advocates-on-record and 12 lawyers for the arguing panel of the apex court. The order issued by additional secretary (law) Ravi Dadhich said that after careful consideration the AAP government had decided a panel of advocates-on-record and panel of arguing counsel to represent the city government in the Supreme Court. The order said that Chirag M. Shroff, Atul Kumar and Jagjit Singh Chhabra would be advocates-on-record and Siddhartha Dave, Manav Gupta, Kuldip Singh, Amarjit Singh Bedi, Gurmehar Singh Sistani, Yashvardhan, Sunil Sharma, Karuna Nandy, Aishwarya Rao, Naveen R. Nath, Niraj Gupta and Charu Walikhanna as the government’s arguing counsel.

The order specified that advocate-on-record shall be paid a fixed remuneration of '90,000 per month. It said advocates-on-record may also be paid drafting fees of '7,500 for each case. The order made it clear that if the advocate-on-record argues the matter, he or she may be paid fees at the rates as approved by the Union law ministry to Group-A panel counsel.

For the arguing panel, the order said he or she shall be paid fees as applicable to Group-A counsel in the Supreme Court. The order said: “Set of cases where a common question of law is involved should not be considered as one for the payment of fees if the facts are substantially different. However, one drafting fees will be payable in the main case and no separate drafting fees will be payable in connected cases with same facts. It is also clarified that in connected matters, no separate appearance fees shall be paid.”

The order said that the panel counsel shall be engaged with the prior approval of the law department of the city government.

It said: ”The fee bills of the panel counsel shall be verified by the in-charge AOR. And it shall be certified by the advocate that fees being claimed is in accordance with scales of fee as mentioned above. In special cases, the department concerned can engage any lawyer, other than the empanelled advocates in consultation with AOR in-charge. However, prior approval of minister in-charge of the department shall be necessary.”

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