Anushka Mansharamani
The Delhi High Court gave a warning to the Centre and the AAP government for putting a hold on the salaries of the senior officials for their failure to clear their bills which were pending for 6 months or more of the lawyers empanelled by them.
This information was given to the Delhi High Court by the counsel for the Centre and the Delhi government and it was stated that the payment process had begun and some bills were cleared while others were soon to be cleared.
The concerned authorities sought more time for the clearance of the pending bills.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh directed the authorities to clear the bills, failing which the court would stay the salaries of the senior officials inclusive of the secretary level.
The bench stated that, “It should not happen that advocates are not getting their six months old bills cleared and not getting salaries.”
The court passed this notification while hearing a petition that was filed by Advocate Piyush Gupta.
Piyush Gupta argued that financial hardships were being faced by the government lawyers as the courts were closed during the pandemic and the only source of income for some of them were the pending fees and bills.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, appearing on behalf of the Centre stated the sanctioned budget for the empanelled advocates was Rs. 9 crores and that this amount has been cleared in full .
Counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing on behalf of the Narcotics Control Bureau, stated that the bills of the advocates were forwarded to the NCB and were in process.
The High Court granted time to the authorities to clear the advocate’s bill and listed the matter for further hearing on 12th February.
An impleadment application was earlier filed by a central government lawyer in the pending petition claiming that his professional fees was not paid and he had several outstanding bills.
The plea also mentioned that the bills of various Delhi government lawyers was pending and therefore the court allowed the empanelled lawyer of the central government to be a party in the case.