Kerala Government Appoints 105 Law Officers To Represent The State Before High Court

The Kerala government has notified the appointment of 20 Special Government Pleaders, 53 Senior Government Pleaders, and 52 Government Pleaders for representing the State in cases before the Kerala High Court.

On 26th July, Advocate General Gopalakrishna Kurup K had forwarded a list of names of eligible advocates to be appointed as government law officers as per the Kerala Government Law Officers (Appointment & Conditions of Service) and Conduct of Case Rules, 1978.

Thereafter, the government issued an order on 29th July announcing the appointment of 105 lawyers. The appointment will be valid for three years with effect from August 1, 2021.

Eighteen out of the 52 GPs appointed by the order are women. Most notable of the new appointments in this category is that of Advocate Reshmitha R Chandran who had filed cases at the Supreme Court for the CPI(M) government in its previous term.

Recently, she had filed a petition before the Supreme Court on behalf of Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas seeking a probe into the Pegasus snooping scandal.

53 advocates have been appointed or elevated from previous Government Pleader positions to the designation of Senior GP.

Five out of the 20 Special GPs who have been appointed are women -MR Sreelatha (Finance), Latha T Thankappan (SC/ST), Deepa KR (Local Self Governance), Ambika Devi (prevention of atrocities against women and children), and Sudha Devi N (land acquisition)

Advocates CE Unnikrishnan and TB Hood have been appointed as Special GPs in the Advocate general office.