ADMK secys made Govt counsel

Chennai, May 10: Almost the entire lot of district secretaries of the AIADMK's legal wing has been appointed as standing government counsel ...

Chennai, May 10: Almost the entire lot of district secretaries of the AIADMK8217;s legal wing has been appointed as standing government counsel for 29 districts in Tamil Nadu. The move comes just a fortnight after 33 AIADMK lawyers were appointed as Central Government standing counsel to deal with cases concerning various departments coming up in the High Court.

All 29 posts have been newly created by the Law Ministry. And, in view of the controversy that erupted over the first batch of appointments, Union Law Minister M Thambidurai8217;s latest move has been kept strictly under wraps.

Among the first 33 appointees was Muthukumarasamy, who appeared for AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha8217;s friend Sasikala Natarajan in the multi-crore FERA violation case against her. A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the political appointments.

The appointment orders reportedly despatched to the inductees from the AIADMK headquarters state that the district standing counsel will be given amonthly retainer fee of Rs 1,000, reimbursement of telephone rental and accommodation charges besides a separate fee for each case.

The counsel will conduct the Central Government cases other than those of the Income Tax and Railway departments as well as cases against public officers which come up before the district courts in the various districts of Tamil Nadu. They will mainly handle civil cases pertaining to Excise, Customs, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DRI, and the Telephone and Postal departments.

The order issued on April 23 says the counsel have been appointed with immediate effect and will continue for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. While lawyers without political affiliations baulk at the creation of new posts of district standing counsel, the new appointees assert that it is an effort to 8220;reduce the work burden8221; in the districts.

Till recently, Central Government departments either despatched standing counsel stationed in Chennai to thedistricts concerned, or hired lawyers on a case-to-case basis. Justifying the creation of the posts, new standing counsel for Chennai district and party legal wing deputy secretary J O Jayannathan said, 8220;This will help ease the work load. Moreover the Supreme Court has clearly ruled that appointing lawyers with political-affiliations was not illegal8221;. With the appointment of a separate district government counsel exclusively for Chennai, the fate of the five government standing counsel for the subordinate courts hangs in balance. Though they have not been served with termination orders yet, new incumbent Jayannathan feels that all five must make way for him.

Story continues below this ad

Legal wing secretaries have been appointed as standing counsel in all districts except Nagercoil, Ramanathapuram, Erode and Coimbatore. However, the appointees in these four districts are also party functionaries.