New appointments to be made soon
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, June 14: The State Administrative Council (SAC), which met here today under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik, in a major decision, sacked 400 advocates engaged as Standing Counsels with various Government departments, representing State in several subordinate courts.
Official sources said that decision to this effect was taken by the SAC today, as most of them were engaged by the previous Governments under political considerations, exerting unnecessary excessive burden on the State exchequer. A couple of days ago, the Government had sacked nearly 44 Public Prosecutors and Assistant Public Prosecutors. Most of these people had been engaged on the recommendations of Ministers, Legislators and other political functionaries, sources said.
The SAC also accorded sanction to the engagement of 120 Standing Counsels, not exceeding 40 in Srinagar and Jammu districts and two each for other districts. This re-organisation exercise in the office of Advocate General, would save nearly Rs 58 lakhs public money annually, the sources added. It also accorded sanction to the creation of 20 posts of Assistant counsels (10 for Kashmir and 10 for Jammu) in the office of Advocate General to assist the Law Officers.
The Assistant Counsels will be paid a monthly remuneration of Rs 20,000 and Standing Counsels Rs 8000.
With a view to addressing the litigation matters promptly and minimizing the scope of adverse orders against the State authorities and rationalizing the number of Standing Counsels, the Law Department worked the reorganization proposal in consultation with the Finance Department.
Pertinent to mention that the State litigation is being contested in the High Court by a team of Law Officers headed by Advocate General and assisted by other Law Officers i.e Additional Advocate General, Deputy Advocate General and Government Advocates at Srinagar and Jammu wings of State High Court. Each Law Officer has been assigned Departments and he is responsible for contesting the cases for such Department.
Meanwhile, the State Administrative Council (SAC) accorded sanction to the grant of ‘Special Pay’ equivalent to 10% of the basic pay in favour of the employees of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir.
The decision was taken following the recommendations of the Committee headed by Principal Secretary, Finance Department constituted vide Government Order No. 562-GAD of 2019, dated 09.05.2019.
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