HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 27636/2018
Sekh Babaruddin S/o Shri Guldeen Khan
----Petitioner
Versus
Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation
----Respondent
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Ankul Gupta
For Respondent(s) : Mr. M.S. Singhvi, AG with
Mr. Darsh Pareek
Mr. Vinayak Joshi
Mr. Rajpal Dhankhar
Mr. Uttam Singh (Executive Law)
Mr. Jagdish Prasad Nitharwal (EN)
(Legal Monitoring)
Mr. Mahendra Shandilya (President,
RHBA, Jaipur)
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SAMEER JAIN
Order
10/01/2023
The matter was listed today in the background of order dated 05.01.2023, vide which this Court directed the respondent Corporation to submit the statistics of all cases of the respondent Corporation, under different categories, pending adjudication before this Court and other Courts/Tribunals.
Learned Advocate General, Mr. M.S. Singhvi has appeared and was appraised of the Circular dated 16.11.2022 issued by Principal Secretary, Law, qua the appearance of Additional Advocate Generals, which was not so desired.
Mr. Uttam Singh, Executive Director, Law and Mr. Jagdish Prasad Nitharwal, EN, Legal Monitoring, present in person. It is submitted by the officials that near about 7500 cases of the (Downloaded on 16/01/2023 at 11:38:55 PM) (2 of 2) [CW-27636/2018] respondent Corporation are pending before the Court and that they have no policy or framework for quick and efficient disposal of the same. It was also submitted that the respondent Corporation has no fixed method or policy of appointment/engagement of panel lawyers.
Mr. Mahendra Shandilya, President, RHBA Jaipur, also appeared and submitted that the mode and method of engagement of panel lawyers is opaque and highly arbitrary. There is no transparency in the engagement of such panel lawyers, nor is there any coherent appointment method - like an open advertisement or some sort of consultation - and the lack thereof promotes and permits favouritism and backdoor entry. He has also relied upon Hon'ble Apex Court judgment of State of Punjab and Ors. vs. Brijeshwar Singh Chahal and Ors.: (2016) 6 SCC 1 to submit that appointment of lawyers/counsels in the matters of State and instrumentalities of State should be done in a fair and transparent manner and the power to engage and appoint representatives/lawyers/counsels by the State must be like any other power, to be exercised in a fair, reasonable, non- discriminatory and objective manner, otherwise the same would be violative of Article 14 and 21 of Constitution of India.
Upon consideration of the respective submissions, this Court directs the respondent corporation to file appropriate affidavit in the background of the present case and the arguments made today within a period of 3 days.
List the matter on 17.01.2023 as a first case before this Court for passing necessary orders.
(SAMEER JAIN),J JKP/144 (Downloaded on 16/01/2023 at 11:38:55 PM) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)