Project to appoint legal officers stuck

A project to have a special team of legal officers on police payroll to increase the Mumbai Polices conviction rate has come to naught,with contract extensions having lapsed and new appointments stalled due to a legal battle in the Bombay High Court.

A project to have a special team of legal officers on police payroll to increase the Mumbai Polices conviction rate has come to naught,with contract extensions having lapsed and new appointments stalled due to a legal battle in the Bombay High Court.

A Government Resolution had been passed in February 2007,which sanctioned the appointment of a special team of lawyers that would provide legal opinion to the police to build watertight cases that lead to convictions. The legal officers would not argue in court,but assist the police in putting together the cases,which would then be taken up by public prosecutors.

Each Assistant Commissioner of Police,Deputy Commissioner,Additional Commissioner and Joint Commissioner would have a legal officer as would the Police Commissioner. A total of 86 lawyers were to be appointed and given a monthly salary.

A group of legal officers from Marathwada approached the Aurangabad Bench of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) arguing that since they had worked for 11 months,they should be treated as government employees instead of contractual employees. In 2010,MAT passed an order making the appointments of legal officers null and void, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) S P Yadav.

We have challenged the MATs order in the HC and the matter is pending. With a maximum of two extensions of 11 months each allowed,most of the legal officers appointed have finished their maximum tenure. New appointments are also stalled till the courts order comes through. Only about six or seven legal officers are left with the Mumbai Police, said Yadav.

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