`Lawyers who never fought a case, run tea stalls made law officers'
Dhananjay Mahapatra
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court was informed on Thursday that lawyers who had not appeared in a single case before the Punjab and Haryana high court had been inducted as law officers by these states solely on the basis of their proximity to politicians of ruling parties.
Advocate Pradeep Raparia, angry at not getting appointed as additional advocate general in Haryana, told a bench of Justice T S Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph that he had knowledge of lawyers running tea stalls, liquor vends and those who had not even argued a single case getting appointed as additional advocate general or assistant advocate general.
The bench said it did not want to restrain states from appointing any number of law officers but was firm that there had to be a “semblance of transparent selection“ process as the law officers held public office and were paid from the exchequer to defend the government. “It should send out a message to the public at large that competent advocates too have a chance to get considered for the post of law officers and not only those who enjoy political clout,“ the bench said before reserving its order.
Appearing for Punjab, senior advocate P P Rao said political clout worked both among lawyers and judges.“In judiciary , too, we find some judges climb faster than others because of their links with powerful politicians,“ he said.
The bench referred to the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code mandating state governments to consult the high court concerned while appointing public prosecutors for trial courts.
Raparia presented a copy of the CAG report that castigated Haryana for having no procedure to assess the work of law officers who were appointed without inviting application from candidates. After carrying out a random check, it reported that more than 50% of law officers so appointed were without work but were drawing salaries.
The bench asked Punjab's additional advocate general Nikhil Nayyar to submit the CAG report on working of law officers within a week.
On Haryana, the CAG report said in January 2012, during the reign of the Congress government, out of 179 law officers on the roll, on an average, 140 law officers had not been allotted any work. The bench said there had to be some mechanism to assess the number of law officers needed on the basis of the load of litigation.
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