Kerala High Court lawyer Susheela R. Bhatt, who has been removed from the post of Special Government Pleader appearing for cases involving high-stake forest and revenue lands, on Saturday said that the government’s abrupt action might adversely affect the proper conduct of these cases before the High Court.
She said that, in fact, she did not have any complaint against the government action. It was the prerogative and the policy of the new government to take any decision whether a government pleader should be allowed to continue or not. If a client did not want his lawyer to appear for him/her, it would not be proper for that lawyer to conduct his/her cases.
However, her concern was that the forestland cases involving high stakes might be affected adversely because the adversaries in these cases were very strong and would adopt any strategy to win the cases. She became the Special Government Pleader in 2004.
Later, when the Left Democratic Front government headed by V.S. Achuthanandan assumed office, she was allowed to continue in the post. But the LDF government removed her from the post in 2007. When the UDF government was voted to power in 2011, she was appointed again as Special Government Pleader.
Oppn. flays decision
Opposition parties have come down heavily on the government decision to remove Ms. Bhatt.
In separate statements in the capital on Saturday, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president V.M. Sudheeran and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Kummanam Rajasekharan accused the government of having taken the decision at the bidding of private individuals and groups who had encroached into government land in different parts of the State.
Mr. Sudheeran said the government had taken the decision under pressure from big companies such as Harrison Malayalam Limited and Tatas, who had been running legal battles with the State government for long.
Ms. Bhatt’s removal had come at the time when the cases involving government and the two companies were at a crucial stage. This was meant only to concede the case to the two companies and was, therefore, extremely deplorable. The government should immediately reinstate Ms. Bhatt and return to her all the cases she had been handling, the KPCC president said.
To help corporates
In his statement, Mr. Rajasekharan said the last two governments had retained Ms. Bhatt because they knew well that the government’s cases against corporate groups such as Tatas, Harrison Malayalam, Karuna Estate and Believers’ Church would get subverted.
She had been handling these cases for the last 10 years. Ms. Bhatt’s removal as special government pleader showed that the Pinarayi Vijayan government would be ready to do anything to help the moneybags, the BJP leader said.
