Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 8: Notwithstanding the fact that litigation against the Government and its various agencies has increased manifold during the past some years and situation demands checking of this trend by resorting to effective case management, the performance of the Law Officers is not being reviewed in Jammu and Kashmir in blatant violation of State Litigation Policy.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that keeping in view the increase in litigations against the State, the Law Department of State Government in the year 2011 evolved a State Litigation Policy on the pattern of National Litigation Policy. The objective behind this policy was to ensure that good Government cases are won and the bad cases are not unnecessarily pursued.
In the policy, stress was laid on placing of all material facts supported by relevant documents before the courts with full transparency so that Government does not become a compulsive litigant and every matter doesn’t require seal of the courts, sources said.
The policy, while laying stress on effective case management, clearly states: “As a first step to avoid unnecessary litigation against the Government, the Law Officers/Government Counsels and the concerned departments against whom the litigation is initiated, have to be pro-active”. Moreover, in the policy, provision has been kept for reviewing and monitoring the performance of the Law Officers.
The Law Officers-Advocate General, Senior Additional Advocate General, Additional Advocate General, Deputy Advocate General and Government Counsels in both the wings of the High Court and in different departments are responsible for active case management which involves constant monitoring of cases particularly to examine whether cases have gone “off track” or have been unnecessarily delayed.
Shockingly, the performance of the Law Officers is not being monitored at any level in the State Government in blatant violation of the Litigation Policy, sources said, adding “in the absence of this mandatory exercise the Government remains in dark about the progress achieved in bringing unnecessary litigation to an end and checking prolonging of the cases”.
This exercise was initiated when Ali Mohammad Sagar was the Law Minister but the same came to an end abruptly due to unknown reasons and thereafter no serious thought was given to this aspect, sources revealed. “This exercise is not being taken seriously despite numerous instances of lack of proper and timely coordination between the Law Officers and the different agencies/departments of the Government, which results into passing of strictures against the Government by the courts”, they added.
Not only this vital aspect, even the issue regarding increasing the strength of the Law Officers in the High Court could not be thoroughly debated upon in the absence of adherence to monitoring mechanism, sources said while disclosing that less than 30 Law Officers are fighting for the Government in both the wings of the High Court.
As per the Litigation Policy, every administrative department shall have an effective legal cell headed by a Law Officer and Nodal Officer of administrative department with full fledged qualified staff. “But this provision is also not being taken seriously and the same leaves impact on the Government cases”, sources said.
An officer of the Law Department, on the condition of anonymity, said, “the new dispensation has decided to review the performance of Law Officers after every two month”, adding “during such review not only the functioning of Law Officers but also their difficulties like increase in strength in consonance with the workload and enhancement of benefits would be deliberated upon”.
It has also been decided that full-fledged Legal Cell would be created in every department on the pattern of Planning and Finance Departments so that effective steps could be initiated for bringing cases to logical conclusion in shortest possible time, he said.
The Law Minister would personally interact with all the Administrative Secretaries in this regard in the days to come so that provision of Litigation Policy regarding Legal Cell is implemented in letter and spirit, the officer further said.
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