BMC to hire 100 senior lawyers

Mumbai: With as many as 91,000 legal cases still pending in various courts, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in a desperate measure, has decided to hire 100 senior lawyers to contest these lawsuits.

“To present the BMC’s side in courts effectively, we need the expertise of senior solicitors. Accordingly, we are in the process of making panels,” said a senior civic official from the legal department.

According to civic officials, it will be the first time the BMC will be forming three panels — A, B and C — of senior lawyers. Panel A and C will have 40 lawyers each, whereas panel B will consist of 20 lawyers.

Lawyers, who are registered as senior lawyers as per The Advocates Act 1961, will be included in panel A whereas the panel C will have lawyers having minimum 25 years of experience of soliciting in Supreme or high courts. The panel B will have lawyers, who have worked at a higher level like former judges of Supreme or high court, attorney general of India, solicitor general of India, additional solicitor general, advocate general, additional advocate general etc.

From constructions to licences of shops, the sanctions and approvals have to be obtained from the BMC in many types of issues. However, several such cases get entangled in legal hassles and keep on dragging for years. The civic body has been unable to dispose them off in stipulated time creating a huge backlog of such cases.

More than 91,000 cases are pending in various courts like Supreme Court, high court, city, civil and sessions courts, small causes as wells as industrial tribunes.

In these cases, lawyers bearing-posts of assistant law officers and deputy law officers represent the BMC. In addition to this, the legal department prepares BMC’s pacts, purchase notices, contracts, lease agreements, project agreements etc. The department also provides legal advice to the civic administration whenever necessary.

The BMC has invited expression of interests from senior lawyers, who want to be a part of its panels and the last date of applying is November 30, said the official.

Meanwhile, the activists have said that the civic body must review its lawyers work periodically. “The BMC should take a review of lawyers’ works every three months to ensure that huge money spent on them is justified,” said civic activist Anil Galgali.

RTI says 

The RTI query filed by activist Anil Galgali had revealed that in a 13-year period of 2001-14, the BMC engaged 151 lawyers to represent it in courts and paid them a whopping Rs 105 crores as fees. They included several big names like K.K. Sanghvi, Anil Sakhre, G.E. Vahanvaty, E.P. Bharucha, S.U. Kamdar, Ramesh Bhat, Pallav Sisodiya, J. Rais, B.L. Chabbria
and Subhash Vyas.