PATNA: The Patna high court on Tuesday ordered the state government to clear the pending bills of assistant counsel of law officers within six weeks’ time or face penal action.
A bench of Justice Mohit Kumar Shah was hearing a writ petition filed by Lalan Kumar, Vikash Ratan Bharti, Santosh Kumar Mishra and Nikhil Kumar Agrawal, whose bills against fees raised for representing the state government in several cases have been pending since December 2017. They were earlier assistant counsel to government pleader Sanjay Kumar Giri, who had resigned on September 15, 2017.
The four were attached to the office of another government pleader GP Ojha. They were directed by advocate general to look after all the files related to government cases and handled by Giri. However, after taking their services for six months, the four were finally directed to hand over the files on April 4 last year, meaning thereby that their services were terminated.
The petitioners had submitted their respective bills in May last year. They gave representations to law secretary and advocate general in April this year, but no action was taken. Finally, they filed a writ petition on June 26.
Government pleader Prashant Pratap submitted that the law department on July 12 has sanctioned the amount against the bills raised by the petitioners and the petition had become infructuous. Petitioners’ counsel Aditi Hansariya argued that the letter only approved the bills and not the payment.
Though the bench disposed of the matter but orally observed that how would the law secretary feel if his salary is stopped. The court also directed all officials concerned that no such incident should take place in future or else penal action would be taken against erring officials.
A bench of Justice Mohit Kumar Shah was hearing a writ petition filed by Lalan Kumar, Vikash Ratan Bharti, Santosh Kumar Mishra and Nikhil Kumar Agrawal, whose bills against fees raised for representing the state government in several cases have been pending since December 2017. They were earlier assistant counsel to government pleader Sanjay Kumar Giri, who had resigned on September 15, 2017.
The four were attached to the office of another government pleader GP Ojha. They were directed by advocate general to look after all the files related to government cases and handled by Giri. However, after taking their services for six months, the four were finally directed to hand over the files on April 4 last year, meaning thereby that their services were terminated.
The petitioners had submitted their respective bills in May last year. They gave representations to law secretary and advocate general in April this year, but no action was taken. Finally, they filed a writ petition on June 26.
Government pleader Prashant Pratap submitted that the law department on July 12 has sanctioned the amount against the bills raised by the petitioners and the petition had become infructuous. Petitioners’ counsel Aditi Hansariya argued that the letter only approved the bills and not the payment.
Though the bench disposed of the matter but orally observed that how would the law secretary feel if his salary is stopped. The court also directed all officials concerned that no such incident should take place in future or else penal action would be taken against erring officials.
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