"Engage Special Counsels For HC Appearance Only In Unavoidable Circumstances": UP Govt To Its Depts, Agencies

The Uttar Pradesh Government has asked its department and agencies to engage only panel lawyers to argue cases in the High Court and further directed that in case private lawyers/special counsels are to be engaged in unavoidable circumstances, the facts/circumstances for the same should be intimated to the Advocate General's office.

Special secretary of the state government's justice department, Indrajeet Singh issued the order which states thus:

"In general, only one of the Law Officers appointed by the State should be engaged for appearing in the Hon'ble High Court and if it is inevitable to engage a special advocate (private advocate) in any case, then all the facts/circumstances of the case be forwarded to the Advocate General, Uttar Pradesh. Only after this the file should be referred to the Justice Department for engaging a special advocate (private advocate)."

It may be noted that the government issued this order on Friday, i.e., 3 days after the Advocate General wrote to the government expressing concerns regarding the engagement of special counsel by the state agencies without any rhyme or reason despite the availability of competent law officers resulting in putting an extra burden upon the public exchequer.

In his letter to the state, the Advocate General had also stated that the practice of routinely engaging Special Counsels and that too without any prior intimation to the office of the Advocate General about the merits of the matters and without specific permission of even Legal Remembrancer, is contrary to the L.R. Manual.

"...it has come to my notice that repeatedly without any rhyme and reason inspite of availability of competent Law Officers, the State and its agencies are engaging Special Counsels at the rate of Rs. 5,00,000/-(five lacs) or around per appearance to various Senior Counsels, which puts an extra burden upon the public exchequer especially in Lucknow. For example, in case, if a case is listed three times in a month, particular counsel is paid Rs. 15,00,000/- (fifteen lacs) or more...," the letter of the AG reads.