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Journalism of Courage
The appointment of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s son Aditya Shankar as a standing counsel by the Madhya Pradesh government has come under the scanner with a former standing counsel and the Congress party calling it a case of favouritism.
Aditya was recently appointed by the BJP government in MP as one of the standing counsels in the Supreme Court.
B S Banthia, who was standing counsel for more than a decade, alleged that Aditya did not qualify for the post because he had not cleared the Advocate on Record examination. Banthia was quoted by a newspaper as saying that “his only qualification is that he is Ravi Shankar Prasad’s son”.
When reached for comment, Banthia refused to elaborate. “You can find it (his qualification) for yourself. I don’t want to say anything more about it,” he told The Indian Express.
MP Law Minister Kusum Mehdele, however, said Shankar was well qualified for the job and had expertise in Intellectual Property Rights, international commerce and law among other things. She said Aditya has done his LLM from Cornell Law School in the US.
The minister said clearing the Advocate on Record examination was not mandatory for appointment as a standing counsel. He had worked with legal luminaries and was practicing independently in the apex court as also tribunals and other legal entities, the minister said dismissing Banthia’s criticism as unwarranted.
Leader of Opposition Satyadev Katare said the post should have gone to someone from the state, and not an outsider.
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