HC blasts Kerala AG's office, CM

The Kerala High Court on Thursday severely criticised the office of the State Advocate General for its inefficiency in handling Government cases and the undesirable tendencies found among several of its lawyers. The court even observed sarcastically that it would be better if the AG’s office was closed down in the present circumstances.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Alexander Thomas also came down heavily on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy by saying that he had no right to criticize Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi for representing Kerala’s bar owners in the Supreme Court when he cannot ensure efficient functioning of the law office of his own State.

Irked by the inability of the State’s lawyers to produce the required documents while considering two important cases, the judge complained that the AG’s office was not providing the court with the information it demanded in time and that many of the instructions of the court were not being honoured.

Stating that many of the lawyers from the AG’s office had not been handling cases efficiently, the judge said that there was also a tendency of removing the lawyers who argued Government cases. He also said that this was no surprise when most of the lawyers in the AG’s office were nominees of liquor barons and other business groups.

Though there were 120 lawyers in the AG’s office, Government cases were not being handled efficiently, the judge pointed out. If these lawyers were unable to discharge their duties properly it would better to engage private lawyers, he said. Justice Alexander Thomas said that the Kerala AG’s office should take lessons in dealing with cases from its counterpart in Tamil Nadu.

Many of the Government lawyers did not seem to be interested in arguing public cases, the judge said, adding that the only case over which they had shown interest in the recent times was the one pertaining to the solar scam.This was not the first time that the State’s law office had come under the court’s criticism since leading lawyer KP Dandapani took over as Advocate General after the Congress-led UDF came to power in 2011 but this was the first time the High Court had criticized it in such harsh manner, senior lawyers said.

“The criticism does have some substance to it,” said senior lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj. “There is no point in saying that things would work in this way only in a democratic setup. The AG’s office should be reflecting the general sentiment of the people of the State. But it is a fact that private interests used to cause problems in the functioning of this office,” he said.

Chief Minister Chandy, however, said that the State Government had full trust in the Advocate General and was satisfied with the way his office was functioning. He also justified his criticisms against Attorney General Rohatgi for appearing in the Supreme Court for bar owners in a case to argue against the State of Kerala. “We are living in a federal system. The Kerala Government was fulfilling its social responsibility by closing down the bars and the Centre should have supported this move. It was improper for the AG to argue against the State in such a case. This was the context in which I complained to the PM for the Keralites,” Chandy said.