In a major step, the Delhi Government on Monday finally appointed a panel of 69 advocates to appear on its behalf before the district courts of the national Capital. Delhi Government's Law Department, Justice and Legislative Affairs, has issued a notification constituting the lawyers' panel, with the approval of Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot.
Importantly, in April, this year, the Delhi High Court had sought response from the Lieutenant Governor (LG) and the Delhi Government on a petition claiming that the LG was sitting on a file for appointment of Government pleaders who appear in courts on behalf of the State Government, for over three months.
After the approval, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led Delhi Government has issued a notification mentioning seven district court complexes in Delhi.
The notification suggested names of these advocates— Neeraj Aggarwal, Bindiya Savara, Pratyaksh Gupta, Mridul Jain, Ajay Sharma, Dheeraj Kumar Singh, Rohit Bansal, Apoorv Gupta, Mukesh Anand and Firdouse Qutb Wani.
"These appointments shall be subject to such terms and conditions as may be prescribed from time to time. "This notification shall come into force with immediate effect and shall remain in force till further orders," the notification stated.
It may be noted that in May, last year, citing alleged procedural lapses, LG Anil Baijal had declared a panel of 14 lawyers appointed by the Delhi Government for appearance in cases before the Delhi High Court as invalid.
Following the matter, Justice Vibhu Bakhru has asked both the LG and the Delhi Government to respond to the petition filed by advocate Bharat S Kumar within a period of two weeks and posted the case for further hearing on May 14.
According to the plea, the appointment of Government pleaders to conduct cases for the Delhi Government in district courts of Delhi completely lies in a limbo, with no pinpointed response or clarity from either of the respondents (LG And Delhi Government)," the petition said. The delay in appointment of advocates to conduct cases for the Government of Delhi in district courts here has impacted not only the justice dispensation system, but even affected the advocates who have been chosen by the Delhi Government, the plea added.
In June 2017, the Delhi Government had issued a notification for empanelment of advocates as 'Panel Counsels, district courts' to conduct civil cases for it in the district courts of Delhi. Advocate Kumar had applied for the post and subsequently in December 2018, got intimation that he was selected for empanelment along with 68 other advocates. "Till date, despite over three months elapsing, there has been no confirmation/notification pertaining to the appointment from the LG," Kumar said in his petition.
It may be recalled that in response to an RTI query from the LG's office, Kumar was told that the file for appointment of advocates was received by the LG's office on January 21, 2019, but was withdrawn by the Chief Secretary's office on January 28, 2019.