Author:
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 19, 2016
URL:   http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/no-salary-to-delhi-lawyers-for-a-year/articleshow/56056783.cms

Thirty-two public prosecutors of Delhi government have not received salaries for a year, a shocked high court found recently. It has ordered Delhi's chief secretary and the department of law to explain the delay.

"We are deeply concerned about the non-payment of fees to the prosecutors...it would be extremely difficult for them to run their offices to enable them to render effective service in serious criminal matters," a bench of Justices Gita Mittal and R K Gauba noted, while ordering the government to furnish a report.

Sources said the government had issued a notification hiking prosecutors' pay without the LG's approval. The government file on public prosecutors' salaries was pending final approval when the Delhi high court delivered its verdict on the primacy of LG in the city administration, sources said.After that, the file was sent to LG for clearance as part of several key decisions taken by the AAP government that needed his nod.

The court said, "It is treatment like this that dissuades other competent counsel from agreeing to work as government pleaders or prosecutors or agree to represent the state", indicating that it was ultimately the state that loses out.

The bench said it was "appalled" and "extremely distressed" to learn that "no payments have been made to the 32 additional public prosecutors since December 2015".

"We are informed that the prosecutors are awaiting payment and have not received even a single penny for almost eleven months. We are informed by Rahul Mehra, standing counsel, that all aspects of the bills of the prosecutors have been examined and have been verified and there is no reason at all for non-disbursement of these payments," the court observed. The court added that it was difficult to understand "how the state would expect the requisite assistance to be rendered by the counsel to courts" if they have not been paid.

The issue cropped up when the bench was hearing an appeal filed by murder convicts serving life term. HC had roped in Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to examine the rehabilitation of convicts' families after it found that children were facing extreme difficulty in continuing their schooling.