Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, on Friday urged Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to constitute a High-Level Inquiry Committee to probe the engagement of a “large number” of advocates, translating into “payment of crores of rupees as fees”, to undertake litigation on behalf of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.
Mr. Gupta said that the “precious public exchequer” was being squandered by the Chief Minister “for his one-upmanship”.
“The issue is so sensitive for the government that it is being prevented from coming in public domain. As Leader of Opposition, I am being denied the information regarding engagement of advocates and case-wise payment made to them. This is being done with ulterior motive and calls for an in-depth probe,” Mr. Gupta said.
‘Rs. 50 lakh fees’
The LoP added that that the government was “in the practice of appointing many advocates in a single case, which is against the normal practice”.
It has, Mr. Gupta said, never happened in the history of the Delhi government that so many advocates were engaged for a single case.
“Even in the case where the High Court delivered its judgment on Thursday, as many as nine advocates with hefty fees were engaged. On the pattern of other cases, in this case too, the advocates were paid upto Rs. 50 lakh as fees. The CM is wasting crores of rupees to put forth his arbitrary view point. This is misuse of the government revenue,” Mr. Gupta said.
The BJP leader said he had written a letter on May 2 to the Chief Secretary (CS) to know how many private lawyers had been engaged in addition to the case-wise payment made and due to them till date. Mr. Gupta said the CS duly acknowledged the receipt of the letter on May 3 and replied that the matter had been referred to Principal Secretary (Law) for taking appropriate action.
But nothing has happened so far, said Mr. Gupta.
