BHUBANESWAR: Amid Opposition outcry over delay in appointment of an advocate general (AG), the acting AG has urged the state government to provide more manpower and sought restructuring of the existing posts to improve efficiency and cope with the growing workload.
Last month, the Odisha government appointed senior lawyer Jyoti Prakash Patnaik as the in-charge advocate general after Ashok Parija, who was the AG since 2019, resigned following the change in the government.
Faced with severe staff constraints, the office of the AG has requested Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja to take immediate steps to improve the efficiency and deal with the growing workload because of the increase in the number of judges as well as number of cases in the Orissa High Court.
In view of the yardstick and the level of ex-cadre posts in the registry of the high court, the office of the AG deserves massive restructuring, including creation of a large number of posts as well as upgradation of different positions, the AG office said in a letter to the chief secretary.
The government has been urged to fill up the vacancies in the posts of assistant section officers (ASOs) and allow extension of around 20 multi-tasking support staff at the earliest. The staff engaged by the empanelled service provider are not getting salary since June 15, sources in the AG office said.
Of the 61 ASOs, 28 posts are lying vacant since long. The AG office has also demanded upgradation of the existing ex-cadre posts of nodal officer from level-10 to 11 and ex-cadre posts of assistant nodal officer and assistant protocol officer from level-9 to 10 of the pay matrix under ORSP Rules, 2017. Similarly, the upgradation of system officers, ASOs and creation of posts of more peons, stenographers and other employees of different grades including diarists has been proposed.
After the abolition of the state administrative tribunal and transfer of its entire cases to the high court, the workload of the existing staff has been multiplied, the sources said. The nodal officer with the assistance of only one assistant nodal officer and an assistant protocol officer deals with all the cases of 40 departments and is accountable to various officers of the state and the team of more than 90 law officers.
The AG office has urged the chief secretary to intervene personally to address the issue to deal with pending cases in the high court amongst which contempt matters are of utmost importance. A total 1,41,196 cases are pending before the high court by the end of April. The Orissa High Court had recently expressed its concern over non-appointment of a full-fledged AG by the government and described the absence of an AG as a “constitutional vacuum” citing Article 177 of the Constitution of India.