HC upset over State’s failure to comply with July 8 orders
Court grants time to appoint nodal officer to dispose of fee claim by law officers
Madras High Court (File)
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has granted further time to appoint a nodal officer to dispose of the professional fee claimed by the government law officers and it has also directed the Chief Secretary (CS) to appear before the court if there is any non-compliance with the order.
A division bench of the High Court comprising R Suresh Kumar and Justice K Kumaresh Babu expressed their dissatisfaction over the State government and CS as the way they dealt with the set of orders given by the court on July 8.
Former Additional Advocate General-IS Ramasamy filed a petition in the MHC to direct the State government to clear the outstanding professional bills for his service. When the case was heard on July 8, Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram submitted that he had written a detailed letter to the CS in this regard and had given suggestions.
Recording that, the bench gave a set of directions to the State government. The HC ordered that a nodal officer in the rank of Secretary or Additional Secretary of the State government specifically nominated for the purpose of dealing with the requests made on behalf of the various departments for the nomination of Advocate General and Additional Advocate General for the appearance in important cases by or against the State Government and its Departments.
When the case was listed again before the bench for compliance of the order, the Special Government Pleader KV Sajeev Kumar appeared for the State and submitted a letter on behalf of the Secretary, Public Department.
Further, the special government pleader sought three months of time to frame guidelines and policy decisions to comply with the court order.
After the perusal of the letter the bench expressed their dissatisfaction. The bench extended a further 30 days for the government to comply with the court’s directions given on July 18 and directed the CS to appear before the court, if any non-compliance of the order. The bench posted matter to September 29 for reporting compliance.
