This, ironically, when the Supreme Court, as early as 2016, had cautioned against such appointments and advised guidelines to insulate the process from politics.
On July 18, Vikas Barala, the son of BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, was named as one of 97 law officers in the state.
Talking to The Indian Express, Advocate General Pravindra Singh Chauhan said: “As far as Vikas Barala is concerned, he has not joined yet…I was not aware of the background (of Vikas Barala). I don’t think he (Vikas) will join.”
AG Chauhan told The Indian Express that it was wrong to see all from one lens. “I have seen their (the new appointees’) working. All of them are competent lawyers. They have not made it to these posts due to their surnames, but only due to their competence. All the selections have been made on merit.”
The AG’s office in Haryana put out an advertisement in January for 100 posts of law officers (including 20 Additional AGs, 20 Senior Deputy AGs, 30 Deputy AGs and 30 Assistant AGs).
A Selection Committee was then set up, with AG Chauhan as its head, and Special Secretary (Home) Maniram Sharma, ‘Legal Remembrancer’ Ritu Garg, and retired judges Darshan Singh and H S Bhalla as members.
Of the 97 chosen, The Indian Express found, at least 23 have links to either politicians, bureaucrats or judges.
These include at least seven close relatives of retired or serving high court judges, seven close relatives of IAS-IPS officers, seven close aides of BJP ministers or MLAs, and relatives of officials of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the State Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana.
Aakash Singla, who has been appointed as Additional AG and whose father is a former head of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, told The Indian Express, “I have been practising since 2012 and it is my first stint in the Haryana AG’s office. I was earlier on the panel of Punjab and Haryana High Court.”
Also appointed as Additional AG, Ruchi Sekhri, the BJP state secretary, Chandigarh, said, “I have been practising for the last 22 years. It is my first stint in the Haryana AG’s office.”
Vasundhara Dalal Anand, the daughter of a former DGP who is also among the new Additional AGs, said she had been practising for over two decades and had earned her law degree from Delhi University.
Another newly appointed Additional AG, not willing to be named, said she had been practising for nearly 15 years, and had earlier been with the Punjab AG’s office.
While an Additional AG in Haryana is entitled to Rs 1.8 lakh per month, apart from Rs 25,000 as retainer fee, a Deputy AG gets Rs 1.28 lakh, and an Assistant AG such as Vikas Barala Rs 88,400 per month. All the appointments are on a provisional/contract basis, and for a period of a year to begin with.
A law officer’s duties include giving advice to the state government in legal matters; to appear and defend the state government or its officials or any statutory authority before a court or tribunal; to represent the state government in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court; and to discharge such other functions as are conferred on a law officer. The law officers are barred from appearing in any court of law “against the interest of the state government”.
Additionally, the AG can engage up to five advocates who “possess such special qualifications and experience as deemed suitable for Law Officers”.
The Haryana Law Officers’ Engagement Act, 2016, says the candidates must be advocates, picked as per eligibility, merit and suitability, including the number of cases handled by them.
While Barala’s appointment has raised a row, such appointments took place under previous governments too. It was this that led to the Supreme Court curtailing the discretion of Punjab and Haryana governments in appointing law officers in March 2016, while advising guidelines for the same on the basis of merit and eligibility.
Hearing a bunch of cases challenging law officers’ appointments, a Bench of Chief Justice of India T S Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph said: “For a fair and objective system of appointment, there ought to be a fair and realistic assessment of the requirement. For otherwise, the appointments may be made not because they are required but because they come handy for political aggrandisement, appeasement or personal benevolence of those in power towards those appointed.”
Rejecting the states’ argument that appointments of law officers were contractual in nature and not public employment, the Court pointed out that the persons chosen lead some of the most important cases involving public interest. The Court also said that while its directions were confined to Punjab and Haryana, “other states would (also) do well to reform their system of selection and appointment to make the same more transparent, fair and objective”.
Subsequently, the BJP government in Haryana passed the Haryana Law Officers’ Engagement Act in September 2016.
Asked about Vikas Barala’s appointment, former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress said: “I do not comment on individuals, but all I can say is that only competent people should be appointed (as law officers).”
Another senior state politician said, “It is commonly known that many of these appointments are political appointments. Of course, many of those who have political or bureaucratic linkages are also bright and competent and make it due to their competence, and not only due to their surnames.”
Incidentally, on Thursday, hearing a case on the appointment of Punjab AG Maninderjit Singh Bedi, a Division Bench of the High Court held that “you cannot succeed in the challenge to an office of Advocate General just by saying he is politically affiliated with some party… That cannot be a disqualification”.
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post Thursday, Varnika Kundu, who had accused Vikas Barala of stalking and attempted abduction, said: “Appointing someone to a public position of power is not just a political decision – it’s a reflection of values and standards… Our policymakers run the country; the rest of us are just hoping they remember that they work FOR the INDIAN CITIZEN. What I will speak about is my own case – and the fact that despite months of national media attention, it has dragged on for this long with little progress… I continue to hold faith in the judiciary until the verdict is announced – but I won’t deny that faith has wavered.”
The trial in the sexual harassment case is still being heard in a Chandigarh court, and Vikas is currently on bail. (Express photo by Jasbir Malhi) 
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