Policy for hiring, disengaging govt lawyers demanded

LUCKNOW: The state government is facing criticism from lawyers’ bodies for discontinuing the services of government lawyers through orders. The lawyers’ bodies now want a policy for disengaging and hiring government lawyers.

In the last fortnight, the state government has discontinued the services of five government lawyers, including a chief standing counsel (CSC) and an additional advocate general.

Advocate JK Sinha, who was holding the charge of CSC (1), is the latest top position holder in the government’s legal team in the high court, to be removed.

“If the state government wants to remove government advocates, then it must ask them to resign, instead of discontinuing their services by issuing orders,” said Amrendra Nath Tripathi, general secretary, Oudh Bar Association, Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court. “Instead of removing government advocates, the state government must ask them to resign. This is the proper way of changing the legal team for any government,” said GS Chauhan, a lawyer at the Lucknow bench of the high court.

“If the government wants to adopt the interview method, then it must clarify who can interview lawyers. Ideally, the office of the advocate general conducts these interviews and not the state government,” said Rakesh Chaudhary, president of OBA.

“How can the office of the principal secretary (Law and Legal Remembrancer) of the state government interview lawyers?” asked Amrendra Nath Tripathi.

Lawyers want this interview process to be conducted by the advocate general’s office.

There are reports that advocate general Raghvendra Singh has resigned, vacated his office and relieved his staff.

The state government is in the process of appointing a new advocate general.

Recently, government advocates had received interview calls from the office of the principal secretary (Law and Legal Remembrancer). However, it had to discontinue the process after Justice DK Upadhyay took serious note of the issue.

The state government appoints government advocates in the Allahabad high court and its Lucknow bench and district courts to represent it.