UP government has not taken concrete steps to reform system of appointment of law officers: Allahabad High Court

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to submit an affidavit detailing the steps it has taken to reform the system of appointment of State law officers [Rama Shankar Tiwari v State of UP]..A Division Bench of Justices Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Shree Prakash Singh noted that the State was yet to take steps called for by the Supreme Court in its 2016 verdict in State of Punjab and another v. Brijeshwar Singh Chahal, in which it was held that states should make the system of appointment of law officers more fair, transparent and objective.In this regard, it noted,"More than six and half years have elapsed since then, however, no concrete steps appear to be in sight which the State Government might have taken to reform the system of selection and appointment of the State Law Officers.".On the submission of counsel for the State that a committee had been formed to review the system of appointments on August 1 this year, the Court replied,"Appointing a Committee as one time measure for making recommendation for selection and appointment of the State Law Officers does not, in our considered opinion, appear to constitute any meaningful and concrete step to comply with the judgment and order passed by Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Brijeshwar Singh Chahal (supra).".The Court was hearing a plea challenging the recent appointment of State law officers. The petitioners claimed that the lawyers were appointed on the recommendation of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and that some of the new appointees were relatives of politicians and judicial officers in the State.They thus sought quashing of the appointments, constitution of a committee for the appointment of eligible advocates as law officers, a reduced number of Chief Standing Counsel (CSC) posts, as well as an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the appointments.The Court was informed during the hearing that the petitioners did not want to push for the first prayer, but instead wanted to ensure that the process of engagement of government advocates is made more transparent, fair and objective..The State government opposed the maintainability of the plea, calling into question the credentials of the petitioners. However, the Bench was quick to dismiss the same, noting,"The petitioners are practicing lawyers of this Court having to their credit considerable length of practice. All the petitioners are members of Oudh Bar Association and are also enrolled as AORs with the High Court. Their concern about the transparency, fairness and objectivity in the matter of engagement of State lawyers cannot be doubted.".While sharing the concern of the petitioners that the process should be more transparent and objective, the Court ordered,"We, thus, call upon the State Government to file counter affidavit/affidavit to be sworn in by none other than the Principal Secretary, Law/ Legal Remembrancer himself stating therein as to what steps are being taken/proposed to be taken for ensuring that observations and directions of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Brijeshwar Singh Chahal (supra) are implemented in their true spirit. The affidavit to be submitted under this order shall give a complete scheme of selection and appointment of Government Advocates which shall ensure the process to be more transparent, fair and objective."The affidavit, which is required to be filed in six weeks, shall touch upon all aspects related to the selection and appointment of government advocates, including assessment of need, eligibility, equal opportunity, process of selection and all other related issues, the Court directed.The matter is listed for October 17.The petitioners were represented by Advocates Alok Kirti Mishra and Dinesh Kumar Tripathi while the State was represented by Advocate Abhinav N Trivedi..[Read Order]