Centre Seeks Time To Verify And Clear Bills Of Lawyers Representing Delhi Govt

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 20) adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by the Delhi government against the Union of India & Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) assailing non-payment of its lawyers' bills, after the Union's counsel sought 4 weeks' time to verify and clear the bills of the lawyers engaged to represent Delhi government (against the Union).

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar re-listed the matter after 5 weeks, upon briefly hearing Senior Advocate Shyam Divan (for the Delhi government) and the counsel for the respondents.

"At the request of the counsel for respondents, who prays for and is granted 4 weeks' time to verify and make payments, re-list after 5 weeks", Justice Khanna dictated. It is worthwhile to mention that on the last date, the court had urged the Union and the LG to clear the bills and not make it a "prestige issue".

The hearing began with Justice Khanna enquiring if the issue had been sorted out, in response to which, it was informed that the process had started. The respondents' counsel stated that the issue was being looked into "non-adversarially" and apprised that since Divan gave a list of 240 matters, the same had been circulated to the LG. The LG in turn had written to the Chief Secretary and eventually, a process was started for creating a Google form, asking every Department to collate whatever bills are pending.

"We don't know whether the bills have been raised, when the bills have been raised, what is the value, etc.", he said, pointing to some of the difficulties. In response, Justice Khanna commented, "we'll have to rely on something from the other side...what the other side has said. Please complete the exercise in 3 weeks...". When the respondents' counsel sought 4 weeks' time to do the needful, the bench enhanced the period from 3 weeks to 4 weeks.

Notably, another issue pointed out from the respondents' side was that they were being given a list of cases, and not the list of bills. On this, Justice Khanna said that the bills would be there in the Department. "Please ask for the bills...and list of cases, obviously they are cases, you can verify from the website...wherever you have been able to ascertain, make payment. Wherever you are able to partly ascertain, make part payment", the judge instructed.

Ultimately, at the request of the respondents, 4 weeks' time was granted by the bench to "verify and make payments".

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave also appeared for the Delhi government.

Case Title: Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India and Ors., W.P.(C) No. 140/2024