Submission of performance report of all Law Officers
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 15: In utter disregard to the repeated directions of the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments of the State have failed to meet the deadline for submission of performance report of all Law Officers. Moreover, the concern of the State High Court regarding seeking of unnecessary adjournments by the Law Officers has remained unaddressed despite lapse of several months.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on the directions of the Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Basharat Bukhari, the Law Department on May 2, 2018 wrote to all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments asking them to furnish performance report of all the Law Officers conducting the cases of all the departments including Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) before both the wings of the State High Court.
“The performance report shall reach the office of Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs positively by or before May 15 enabling the Minister to review the functioning of Law Officers”, read the communication .
As there was no response from any of the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments, the Law Department issued reminder on May 9, 2018 mentioning that desired information was still awaited despite explicit directions. Through the reminder stress was laid on expediting the process of formulating and submitting performance report within the stipulated time-frame.
Though the deadline fixed by the Department of Law and Justice on the directions of Minister expired today but not even one Administrative Secretary and Head of the Department has submitted the performance report of the Law Officers, sources informed, adding “in this way the bureaucrats have made it clear that directions of the Minister don’t carry any importance for them”.
Stating that this was not for the first time that such a direction was issued by the Law Minister, sources said, “previous Law Minister Abdul Haq Khan had also passed similar instructions after observing that Law Officers were not steadfastly following the cases pending in the courts thereby leading to unnecessary delays”, adding the then Law Minister had even issued stern warning to Government counsels against playing truant with their professional responsibilities.
Basically, the reason behind seeking performance report was the concern of the High Court regarding seeking of unnecessary adjournments by the Law Officers, sources said, adding High Court vide orders dated 27/12/2017 and 28/12/2017 passed in SWP No. 1959/2015 had observed that Senior Additional Advocate Generals, Additional Advocate Generals, Deputy Advocate Generals and Government Advocates were not filling the ‘Memo of Appearance’ and seeking unnecessary adjournment in the matters.
Thereafter, in order to overcome this practice of non appearance and seeking of unnecessary adjournments all the Law Officers were impressed upon by the Government to ensure their appearance in the cases that are assigned to them failing which the matter will be viewed seriously which may lead to cancellation of their appointments, sources further said.
Seeking of performance report was aimed at analyzing whether the instructions regarding appearance in cases and their vigorous follow-up were being strictly adhered to by the Law Officers, sources said, adding “due to non submission of performance report by all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments the concern of the High Court has remained unaddressed”.
“The practice of seeking adjournments even in important matters is still going on and this has clearly established that majority of the Law Officers are not taking their duties seriously even after repeated instructions from the Department of Law”, sources said, “even in the important Public Interest Litigations the Law Officers prefer to seek time for filing compliance report on every hearing instead of facilitating the High Court in deciding the matters”.
When contacted, a senior officer in the Department of Law and Justice confirmed that none of the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments has submitted performance report of the Law Officers. “It seems that they are not ready to understand that it is only due to their cooperation that the Government will be able to devise mechanism for reducing pendency of cases in the courts”, he added.
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