Clear The Pending Bills Of Govt Counsel Within 4 Weeks: Delhi HC Directs Delhi Govt, Centre

The Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan has directed the said authorities to clear all the bills they had received from government counsel on or before Feb 10, 2020.

The order has come 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.

The counsel appearing for the Delhi Government informed the court that a 'single delivery window' has now been created for the government counsel to raise their bills online so that such bills can be cleared expeditiously.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, who appeared for the Union of India, submitted that the Central Government is waiting for the litigation department of the High Court to start functioning again so that pending bills can be addressed.

While taking these developments into consideration, the court highlighted that the respective authorities shall start feeding the backlog data into the newly created digital window so that older bills can be cleared first.

'You start clearing these bills from today, don't wait for the last week', the court said.

The court also informed the ASG that access has been allowed to lawyers to their respective chambers and departments in the High Court premises and the files kept therein can be accessed for clearing the issue of pending bills.