Non payment of dues: Law officers move HC

MUMBAI: Law officers from the government pleaders office have petitioned the Bombay high court (HC) seeking directions to get their monetary dues released. The dues of some of these officers have not been paid for almost eight months.

The law and judiciary department, which had been asked to respond, has said they are in the process of streamlining the payment of dues by introducing an online payment system and dues will be paid once the system is functional. The online payment system has already been put in place at the Aurangabad bench of the HC and the department will try to extend it to the Mumbai and Nagpur benches, too.

According to Aparna Vhatkar, the petitioner and former government advocate, the dues of almost all law officers with the government pleaders office had remain unpaid since the start of the year. Hence she had petitioned the Bombay HC in April. After the matter had been heard the state assured the court that the dues of Vhatkar would be paid to her within a month.

As the question of the dues of other law officers remained unresolved, the court had asked the law and judiciary department to file an affidavit and had posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.

In its affidavit, the department stated it was in the process of framing a policy to ensure the fees payable to law officers were not claimed or siphoned off by unscrupulous elements. The next hearing is on September 3.