The Rajasthan Government and the state's judiciary are at loggerheads over the appointment of an IAS officer as the state law secretary. While the judiciary is demanding that a senior person from their fraternity be made the law secretary, the state government is not convinced. The disagreement has taken an ugly turn with the judiciary refusing to accept a bureaucrat as their head, while the state government has rejected their demand to withdraw the order. Insisting on its stand, the government even tried to resolve the issue by meeting HC Chief Justice S J Jha. The move, however, did not yield any result. Offended by the government response, the state HC has now asked six of its officials, working with the state government on deputation, to return to the court. This has also led to protests and several members of the judiciary making strong statements against the government. Chief Justice Jha, during an inaugural ceremony at Hanumangarh on Saturday, even went to the extent of saying that the government had a negative approach towards the judiciary and that the bureaucrats, more often than not, created hurdles in development. The differences in opinion emerged last week after the state government announced that Principal Secretary (Justice) T Srinivasan will also be the state law secretary. This was after former law secretary Guman Singh took over as a HC judge on March 9.However, upset over the order, the judiciary demanded that it be withdrawn and a senior member from among them be appointed in place of Srinivasan. Registrar General Kailash Joshi also wrote a letter to the chief secretary regarding the matter and stating that the tradition was to appoint a law secretary on the recommendation of the High Court. The state government refused to take back the order, claiming that the law secretary is a post for an IAS officer and that even the Union law secretary is an IAS officer. Though not ready to withdraw the order, the state government is now busy patching up with the judiciary.
