Bills Submitted By Govt Counsels Prior To Six Months Should Be Cleared: High Court Tells Centre, Delhi Govt

The Delhi High Court today orally told the Centre and Delhi Government that such bills of the counsels engaged with them, that have been filed prior to six months, should be cleared expeditiously.

 "Suppose a bill was filed 7 months ago. That has to be cleared," said a Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh.

The development comes in a plea moved by Advocate Piyush Gupta seeking clearing of bills of various government counsel engaged with the Delhi Government, Union of India, and various municipal bodies, that have been kept pending for long.

It was argued by the Petitioner that despite various representations being made by the aggrieved counsel as well the orders passed by the court, the concerned departments have not cleared the bills. 'Government counsel play a vital role in justice delivery system but, unfortunately, the administration has no concern for their livelihood as their professional bills are lying pending since which is their only source of income', the petition stated.

At the outset, the Bench asked the Respondents, "Have you paid them regularly?"

ASG Chetan Sharma informed the Court that in so far as Union of India is concerned, maximum pendency is cleared. He stated that the budgetary allocation for 2021-2022 was Rs. 10 crore. Out of this, Rs. 8 crore have been utilized and they have sought for budgetary ceiling relaxation, which is awaited. "We have substantially compiled with your Lordship's direction," he said.

GNCTD Standing counsel SK Tripathi on the other hand informed the Court that many departments have cleared their bills but in some cases, old bills are pending. He added, "We are expecting to get it cleared very soon. We are waiting for common online platform for clearance of bills, so that should be another 2-3 weeks. Right now, we don' have a unified single window. It goes around so many desks…After a single window system is put in place, bills can be cleared by one Department itself, instead of going to multiple."

At this juncture, the bench told the Respondents, "Bills submitted prior to six months should be cleared."

In its order, the Bench said,

"Counsel for Respondent No. 1 is seeking time. It is evolving a methodology of single window system for tendering and payment of bills. Time as prayed for is granted."

Accordingly, the matter has been posted for 30th November.

Case Title: Piyush Gupta v. GNCTD