Civic body dissolves junior counsel panel after court rap

Mumbai: After the court pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for sending “inefficient and inept” counsels for important matters, the civic body has dissolved its panel of junior counsels and is in the process of empanelling new counsels who have a minimum of ten years experience. The move comes after BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta assured the court that the civic body would revamp its legal team. The assurance was given after a bench of the Bombay high court pulled up the BMC chief saying that the huge amount of funds (Rs 120 cr) were being allotted for legal matters by the civic body annually but the counsels were unable to represent the cases appropriately.

Since the past month, various judges of the Bombay high court had chided the BMC for fielding counsels who were unable to not only assist the court but were unable to even further the case that came up for hearing. However, the final straw was when a bench headed by justice B.R. Gavai was informed by the counsel for the BMC that it needed some more time to file the reply sought by the court in 2014. Infuriated by the lackadaisical response, the court directed the BMC commissioner to file an affidavit explaining the logic behind leaving important cases to “not-so-capable” advocates while engaging the services of senior counsels for petty matters. 

According to sources in the BMC, the affidavit filed on behalf of Mr Mehta assured the court that the civic body was taking steps to address the concerns raised by the HC and the first step was to dissolve the panel of junior counsels. The source said that through the BMC was trying to get experienced advocates. When contacted Mr Mehta was unavailable for comment on the issue.