Govt reinstates its lawyer panels at high court, Supreme Court

NEWDELHI: The AAP government on Thursday “reinstated” its panel of lawyers in the Supreme Court and the High Court. The move comes more than a week after a Supreme Court verdict which defined roles of the elected government and the lieutenant governor in Delhi’s administration. The appointment of lawyers had earlier been cancelled by L-G Anil Baijal.

According to a government spokesperson, law minister Kailash Gahlot took the decision citing the Supreme Court’s July 4 judgment that L-G’S concurrence was not required on decisions taken by the elected government.

Announcing the decision, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday evening took to twitter and said: “L-G had cancelled Delhi government’s panels of advocates in HC and SC due to which Delhi government’s cases in these courts were suffering. Today (Thursday), Delhi government restored both panels.”

The panel for the High Court includes prominent lawyers like Indira Jaisingh, Rebecca Mammen John, Colin Gonsalves and June Chaudhary among others.

“The lawyers’ panels were wrongly set aside by the L-G. These panels have been restored by the law minister. This decision has been taken after the SC clearly said that executive powers — other than land, police and public order — rests with the elected government,” said a government spokesperson.

Citing alleged procedural lapses, Baijal had i n May declared as “invalid” the panel of 14 lawyers appointed by the Delhi government for appearance in Delhi High Court while the lawyers’ panel in the SC was set aside in August 2017.