Faced with court cases, Telangana govt to hire law associates

HYDERABAD: In what could be a first such instance in the country, the Telangana government has decided to appoint law associates to fight various court cases.
The move was possibly taken following a series of setbacks in courts and strictures passed against higher officials by the high court in several cases in recent times.

With the government caught in thousands of cases in various courts where it is a party, these law associates will come in handy in assisting prosecutors, government pleaders and secretaries of departments, senior government officials said.
To begin with, law associates will be appointed for about 30 major departments in the secretariat.
“If the experiment clicks, more number of law associates will be hired for various departments,” a senior government official said.
The law associates will assist in all the court cases and legal matters such as processing of files pertaining to court cases, interim and final orders of courts, preparation of counter affidavits, filing appeals in the higher courts and special leave petitions, etc.
“These associates will act as liaisoning officers between the government and government pleaders and the advocate general office. They will also assist the secretaries in reviewing all pending cases and monitoring of cases. A notification has been issued to appoint them. They are being hired on a contract basis,” a senior law department official said.
Sources said the government was compelled to appoint the law associates, as in many cases the state has not been able to file counters and appeals where its interests are involved.
Secretaries and districts collectors are being summoned by various courts, especially the high court, for not implementing the court verdicts and for contempt of court. In some cases, even chief secretary Somesh Kumar had to appear before the high court.
“Recently, there have been several instances where collectors and senior officers have been sentenced to jail and also penalised. According to an estimation, over 18,000 contempt cases have been filed against government officers of various departments,” an assistant secretary admitted.
In some instances, the officers are not even aware of court notices as there has been no proper monitoring of cases.
Officials recall that the high court had even asked for data on cases pertaining to revenue-related matters.