The Centre on Friday confirmed that it has scrapped the appointment of 111 lawyers who represented the government in indirect tax cases and said this was done in line with tenure guidelines for such counsels.
> The Hindu had reported on July 25, 2016 that the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) cancelled the appointment orders of 111 of 251 standing counsels appointed in June. The 111 lawyers affected by the order were originally included in the CBEC’s legal panel during the UPA regime.
“The CBEC has vide order dated 18.06.2016 read with note dated 22.06.2016, annulled the appointment of 111 Senior/Junior Standing Counsels from the panel of counsels notified for representing CBEC and its field formations before High Court and other fora,” Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Finance told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
“This was done in line with the guidelines where the normal tenure is only for three years from the date of appointments and all these counsels had already completed their tenure. CBEC has already initiated the process of constitution of a fresh panel,” Mr. Gangwar said.
