SHILLONG: Appointment of three additional advocate generals by the State government was questioned during the Budget session of the Assembly here on Monday citing reasons that it will lead to wastage of the State’s resources even as Law Minister Rowell Lyngdoh defended the move.
The issue was brought to the notice of the House by the opposition while moving a cut motion on the proposal moved by Rowell Lyngdoh to grant Rs 3,75,76,825 for the administration of Justice.
In reply to the query, Lyngdoh said, “There are many cases in Supreme Court, District Court and High Court and at least one advocate general is assigned for District Council court and two for the High Court and to assist the advocate general in the Supreme Court.”
He informed the House that in the district courts in the State, there are approximately more than 10000 pending cases while in the High Court there are almost 1000 pending cases.
“In the NGT benches in Kolkata and New Delhi there are 18 cases, in the Supreme Court there are approximately over 100 cases relating to the Government of Meghalaya which also includes PILs, besides other cases in other courts including Tripura and Allahabad,” he added.
“There are government advocates in the Supreme Court, High Court and District Court to conduct cases on behalf of the Court. In the Supreme Court, there are 10 advocates, in the High Court there are 23 government advocates while in the District Courts there are 8 public prosecutors and 17 additional public prosecutors for different Courts in the State,” Lyngdoh said.
Lyngdoh said that the fees of the government advocate was prescribed by the Office of Memorandum of 2000 and revised in 2013 and even while the government engages a private advocate, the fees is laid down in the Office of Memorandum.
He further said that when the services of a senior advocate of Supreme Court is engaged by the State government, the fees is different for such advocates.
“The budget provision for Supreme Court is Rs 15 lakh while that for fees in the High Court is Rs 30 lakh. These are committed expenditures and are not avoidable, hence the requirement of additional fund,” Lyngdoh stated.
He further stated that with the separation of the Judiciary from the Executive in the five districts and four sub-divisions – Jowai, Nongstoin, Nongpoh, Williamnagar, Tura, Dadenggre, Mairang, Sohra and Amlarem – certain materials like furniture, computers, books, curtains, tables and sofas were required to set up the offices leading to additional expenditure.
He added that following the direction of the Supreme Court to create infrastructure in the remaining five district headquarters of Ampati, Baghmara, Mawkyrwat, Resubelpara and Khliehriat the expenditure for next financial year will increase tremendously and the Supreme Court has directed the State government to file affidavit on the same on or before May 4, 2016.
