Nasir Azam
Srinagar, Oct 23: The government is sitting over appointing standing counsels for representing it in the subordinate courts of Jammu and Kashmir.
In June 2019, the state administrative council(SAC) headed by then Governor Satya Pal Malik had approved a proposal for engaging 120 standing counsels for representing different departments in subordinate courts of J&K after disengaging those recruited during the PDP-BJP rule.
But till date not a single lawyer has been engaged as standing counsel, raising questions about government’s policy of engagement of standing counsels.
In March this year, the government constituted a committee to recommend the engagement of standing counsels for the subordinate courts of Jammu & Kashmir.
Subsequently, an advertisement was issued on March 11, 2020 for inviting applications from advocates.
The last date for filing applications for the posts was extended from time to time which finally expired on September.
On October 20, the government came up with a notification, asking candidates to produce the deficient documents within 15 days’ period.
In June last year, the Law department terminated the standing counsels who were engaged in the three-and-a-half-year rule of the previous PDP-BJP government. “Sanction is hereby accorded to the disengagement of all standing counsels engaged from time to time for contesting cases before subordinate courts within the state with immediate effect,” reads the order issued by the department after SAC decision.
