BHUBANESWAR: The State Government today doubled the retainer and daily appearance fees of government counsels, including the Advocate-General. A decision was also taken to open four new courts.
The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Law Minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan here. Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei and senior officials attended.
The Advocate-General will now get a retainer fee of Rs 10,000 and daily appearance fee of Rs 1,600. Similarly, retainer and daily appearance of government advocate in the High Court have been increased to Rs 6,000 and Rs 1,400 respectively.
The retainer and appearance fee of additional government advocates and standing counsels in the High Court have been increased to Rs 5,000 and Rs 1,200 respectively. The additional standing counsels will get retainer and appearance fee of Rs 4,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively.
The fees of the government advocate in the Orissa Administrative Tribunal (OAT) have been increased to Rs 6,000 and Rs 1,400 while the standing counsels will get Rs 4,800 and Rs 1,200 respectively. The retainer and appearance fees of government advocate in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) have been enhanced to Rs 6,000 and Rs 1,400 respectively.
The law officers at the district-level will also get enhanced fees. The retainer fee of government and assistant government pleaders has been increased to Rs 4,000. Besides, the public prosecutors and additional public prosecutors will get retainer and appearance fees of Rs 4,000 and Rs 600.
Associate lawyers who did not have any retainer fee will now get Rs 2,500 a month. Their daily appearance fee has been doubled to Rs 600. The assistant public prosecutors will also get retainer fee of Rs 2,000 while their appearance fee has been enhanced to Rs 400. Special public prosecutors will have retainer fee of Rs 4,000 and appearance fee of Rs 600.
One more family court will be opened at Bhubaneswar taking the total to 25. Additional district judge courts will be opened at Champua in Keonjhar district and Dharamgarh in Kalahandi district. One more court of judicial magistrate first class will be opened at Jharsuguda.