Appearance of advocate general before courts to be approved by TN chief secy
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has granted powers to the chief secretary to sanction the appearance of the advocate general (AG) or additional advocate generals in the Madras High Court. The power was earlier vested with ministers heading the departments.
A Government Order to this effect was passed last month to streamline the process of sanctioning the appearance of the AG or additional advocate generals in order to avoid unnecessary delays caused while obtaining orders in circulation from ministers in each and every case pertaining to the department concerned.
It is learnt from sources that immediate decisions are required to either implement the order of the court or to go for an appeal. Such timely decision making might avoid the contempt of court.
Meanwhile, the state has also increased the retainer fee and other fees of law officers of the Madras High Court and its bench in Madurai, after the state AG sent in a proposal to the government. A retainer fee is the amount of money paid upfront to secure the services of a lawyer. The fee is paid over and above the amount paid to the lawyers to file and argue individual cases.
The retainer fee for the AG has been increased to Rs 2.25 lakh per month while that of the additional advocate generals to Rs 2 lakh per month, according to a Government Order. Similarly, the retainer for the AG’s appearance in a case before the Madras High Court and National Green Tribunal has been increased to Rs 45,000 per day while that of cases pertaining to batch petitions to Rs 1.8 lakh per day, the maximum amount. Similarly, the fee for AG’s appearance before the Supreme Court per case is Rs 60,000 per day and Rs 2.5 lakh per day for dealing with batch petitions.
For additional AGs, the fee for appearance before the Madras High Court has been increased to Rs 30,000 per case per day while for batch cases it is Rs 1.2 lakh per day. For appearance before the SC and NGT in New Delhi, the fee has been increased to Rs 40,000 per case per day and Rs 1.6 lakh per day for batch petitions.
The retainer fee for the government pleader of the Madras High Court is Rs 1.8 lakh per month, while that of the Madurai bench is Rs 1.5 lakh per month. Special government pleaders will be paid Rs 90,000 a month while additional government pleaders will get Rs 75,000 a month.
Meanwhile, the state is yet to settle bills of the former AG and additional advocate generals that amount to more than `60 lakh.