Take unified stand in courts, Centre tells ministries

New Delhi, June 20: All central government ministries have been asked to take a unified stand in all legal cases and iron-out interdepartmental differences through mutual consultation.

In a stern missive, Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha has asked all central gover nment secretaries to ensure that counter-affidavits are filed in the courts only after being vetted by the Law Ministry.

The move comes after it was observed that at times different departments take up divergent positions or make individual interpretations in court cases thereby causing avoidable confusion in the submissions.

“It may be noted that it is primarily the responsibility of the administrative ministry or department to take timely action at each stage including filing of a counter affidavit during a court case after completing necessary consultations with the other ministries or departments concerned," Sinha said.

If in any case, separate counter-affidavits are required to be filed by orders of the court, it should be ensured that this is done in consultation with the ministries concerned for a coordinated approach. In such cases, a short affidavit endorsing the views of the administrative department can also be filed, he said.

Sinha told all the secretaries to ensure that differences, if any, in the stand of ministries or departments in any particular court matter are resolved through consultation.

“It may also be ensured that the counter affidavits are filed only after appropriate vetting by the Department of Legal Affairs,” he said.

Citing existing instructions, Sinha said all departments are supposed to ensure that “a unified stand is taken before courts of law rather than bringing out the point of view of each ministry or department in the counter affidavit or reply”.

Also, a common counterreply is filed on behalf of the Union of India by the ministry concerned instead of separate affidavits being filed by each department named as respondents, the top bureaucrat said, seeking “strict compliance” of his latest directive. PTI