Disengaged Law Officers may continue to represent state till Aug 16: Madras HC

The Principal Bench of the Madras High Court yesterday passed an interim order allowing public law officers abruptly terminated by the state government to continue representing the state until August 16..The order was passed by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar..“The interim order dated July 5 is modified/clarified to the extent that the appointments that have been terminated may continue to represent the state until August 16 or further orders unless otherwise directed.”.The Court, however, held that it would be open to the state to disengage errant law officers on the basis of individual complaints..The Tamil Nadu government had passed orders terminating the services of government pleaders and public prosecutors in seven districts, namely, Trichy, Madurai, Karur, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Pudukottai. Alleging that the move was politically motivated and implemented without following prescribed procedures, aggrieved advocates filed writ petitions in both Benches of the Madras High Court..On July 5 a Division Bench of the High Court at Madurai passed an order continuing the stay of the aforementioned government orders, in effect nullifying new appointments made by the government. However, it also specifically laid down,.“...the interim order would not give any right to the disengaged law officers to function either as public prosecutors or government pleaders before the subordinate courts.”.It was submitted by Advocate General R Muthukumaraswamy, that the same had given rise to an impasse, detrimentally affecting the litigant public. Therefore, it was requested that the order be vacated, varied and/or modified. The Court had noted earlier that things cannot be allowed to come to a standstill, given the importance of the role of public law officers..The order passed yesterday modified the Madurai Bench order to the limited extent that terminated law officers be allowed to continue in their posts in five districts i.e. Karur, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Pudukottai..The matter will next be heard on July 31..Read the order: