Senior judges to educate civic body law officers

Mumbai: Frustrated by regular scolding by high court judges, the Brihanmumbai Municipal  Corporation (BMC) has roped in one of the senior judges to guide and educate law officers, deputy law officers and engineers about legal procedure and norms. The move is aimed at ensuring that the newly appointed law officers of BMC are in a better position to help the court in cases.

BMC lawyers have been at the receiving end of the ire of many judges and have been chided by them for incompetence and inefficiency which many a times is not of their own doing.

According to a senior legal officer of BMC, advocate Trupti Puranik, the law officers or advocates who appear for the BMC in civic, civil and environment-related issues, they are expected to respond to allegations or make averments to petitioners. This is done based on the replies or instructions given to them by BMC officers or engineers. “Many a times we simply submit the replies typed and framed by the said officials which does not go down well with the judges as they may be inaccurate or vague,” said Puranik. This she said happens as the BMC officials are not well-versed with the judicial nuances or legal proceedings.

Not denying the lacking on the part of some newly appointed law officers or deputy officers, another senior BMC law officer said that in their anxiety to showcase their talent some officers tend to go overboard or get awed by the situation and are not able to provide assistance to the court.

This frustrates the judges and results in passing of strict comments. At times it also results in the BMC engineers being called by the court to explain the situation.   After facing criticism from a lot of judges the BMC decided to take corrective measures and approached sitting senior judge of the Bombay high court justice Abhay Oka to conduct a workshop for the benefit of all BMC law officers, deputies and engineers.

This workshop will see Justice Oka explain the nuances of court proceedings as well as explain procedure to the participants. Apart from justice Oka, sitting judge Sandep Shinde will also conduct a session along with senior advocates Anil Sakhare and N.V. Walawalkar. The workshop will be held on June 9 at Nair Hospital.