Legal Assistants forced to be Programme Officers

Legal Assistants and Assisting Legal Officers in their rights petitions bemoan of an arbitrary attempt to contrive the circumstances so as to force them to be absorbed into the cadre of Programme Officers which has neither any relevance nor connection to the field of law.

The aggrieved 21 petitioners, who are all graduates possessing the LL.B degree and are currently employed as Legal Assistants / Assisting Legal Officers, also lament that the purported cadre service is vested with functions and duties which have not the remotest connection with the functions and du-

Force them to be absorbed into the cadre of Programme Offices which has neither any relevance nor connection to the field of law

ties which the holder of an LL.B degree and / or those with professional legal qualifications will perform.

The petitioners, joined the government service, under the recruitment drive conducted for the “Recruitment of Unemployed Graduates” in 2004, cited Public Service Commission, National Salaries & Cadres Commission, Director General of Establishments, Director General of Combined Services, Director General of the Department of Management Services, Treasury Secretary, the Attorney General and others as Respondents. The Bench comprising Justices Saleem Marsoof, K. Sripavan and S. I. Imam fixed these matters for support on July 9. Sanjeeva Jayawardena instructed by Gowry Shangary Thavarasha appeared for the Petitioners. Deputy Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam appeared for the Respondents. They are seeking the Court to declare that the said Circular as illegal, ultra vires and null and void.