NEW DELHI: To encourage young talent to join legal services for the government instead of working with corporate law firms or starting their own practice, the Ministry of Law and Justice has increased the fees of all senior lawyers by 50 per cent.
Retainership fees of the chief legal advisor of the government, the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and Additional Solicitors General at the Supreme Court has gone up by half of what they were getting earlier. As per the revised rates, the Attorney General’s retainership fee has been increased to Rs 75,000 per month from Rs 50,000. The Solicitor General will receive Rs 60,000 as against Rs 40,000 earlier, while Additional Solicitor Generals will now get Rs 45,000.
Fees of senior counsels on the government’s panel have also been hiked by 50 per cent, while that of junior lawyers on the panel has gone up by 67 per cent.
The fee structure is also applicable to Assistant Solicitor Generals of High Courts, Central Government Standing Counsels of Delhi High Court, Senior Central Government Standing Counsels of various benches of CAT and other senior panel lawyers in High Courts.
However, the hike by the government is nothing in comparison to what private lawyers charge. Fees charged by top lawyers are variable, depending on the complexity of a case and how interesting it is, the relationship with the client or briefing lawyer or a variety of other factors, including the day of the week it is listed to be heard.
Private lawyers such as Ram Jethmalani charge Rs 25 lakh per day, while Harish Salve charges Rs 6-15 lakh and Fali Nariman’s fees are Rs 10-15 lakh.
The rates are usually lowest in the Supreme Court on Mondays and Fridays when miscellaneous cases are taken up and decisions are taken on whether cases require proper hearing. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Supreme Court hears arguments in cases, and fees for advocates such as Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Harish Salve can range between Rs 11 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.
While raising the fees of its lawyers, the government has also made it clear that if they want to claim reimbursements, they will have to furnish proper bills for the same.
Also, from the current financial year, tax deducted at source will increase to 10 per cent of the legal fee bills of government lawyers from 2 per cent previously. For all three categories, the legal fees for writ petitions has been increased to Rs 24,000 per appearance from Rs 16,000, while for special leave petitions, the amount has been hiked to Rs 15,000 per case per day, up from Rs 10,000.
