THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the Left government spending nearly Rs 19 crore on high profile Supreme Court lawyers to argue cases, including controversial political murders before the High Court and Supreme Court, the government is trying to hush up the actual information.
An RTI query on expenses to bring SC lawyers during 2016-21 filed by KPCC secretary C R Pranakumar elicited a reply that only Rs 5.03 crore was spent for the purpose. The applicant is gearing up to file an appeal as assembly records prove that Rs 18.97 crore was spent for hiring Supreme Court lawyers during this period.
The government has availed the services of senior Supreme Court lawyers in 34 cases and paid them a fee of Rs 5.03 crore from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2021, according to the info provided by the Advocate General’s (AG) office. In its response to a RTI query by C R Pranakumar, the AG’s office had listed the number of cases and the remuneration paid to the lawyers. The highest amounts were spent on Periya and Shuhaib murder cases in which the accused were hardcore CPM workers.
In Periya case, Rs 88 lakh was spent on lawyers’ fee alone, while in Shuhaib case, the lawyers fee came to the tune of Rs 86 lakh. In both the cases the government had splurged this huge amount to avoid CBI probe. However, the figures given by the AG’s Office contradict the figures presented by Law Minister P Rajeeve before the assembly in July. The minister stated that the state government had spent Rs 18.97 crore on paying remuneration to the lawyers from May 25, 2016, to May 31, 2021.
Pranakumar said this disparity in the figures given by the AG’s office and the law minister revealed that the government was trying to cover-up the exact expenses incurred on hiring the services of the Supreme Court advocates. “The reply I got from the AG’s Office is misleading. It said the government spent only Rs 5 crore, which is only one-third of the figures that the law minister had presented before the Assembly. We will take adequate legal action to bring out the truth,” he said.
As per the AG’s Office reply, Rs 29.2 lakh was spent on travel and accommodation of lawyers, who fought the Periya case on behalf of the state government. In Shuhaib’s case, Rs 63.5 lakh was incurred under this head. In both these cases, the relatives of the murdered Congressmen had sought CBI probe as they felt that the state police might sabotage the probe under political pressure from the CPM leadership. The state government had vehemently opposed their pleas.
Former Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali felt that the government may not have paid the bills of the lawyers in some cases and that could be the reason for the disparity in figures. However, he added that the LDF government had splurged huge amount in several cases just to protect the interests of the accused. “Had it been regarding protecting the public cause, then there was nothing wrong in hiring the service of expert lawyers from outside.
But in many cases it was just to protect the interest of the accused that supreme court lawyers were brought in. It is equally embarrassing for the state-appointed prosecutors as the move of the government to bring lawyers from outside gives a feeling that they are not competent enough to handle the cases,” he added.
34 cases
The government has availed the services of senior Supreme Court lawyers in 34 cases and paid them a fee of Rs 5.03 crore from June 1, 2016 to May 31, 2021, according to the info provided by the Advocate General’s office.