MADURAI
The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday took serious note of a case filed by former Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian claiming that as many as 156 government authorities, including the Home Secretary, were yet to settle bills raised by him for payment of professional fees due since his appointment in May 2011.
Wondering how could the officials not pay fees to a designated Senior Counsel who had served as an AAG between May 2011 and July 2016, Justice K. Kalyanasundaram told Special Government Pleader (SGP) M. Alagudevan that he would be constrained to summon all the 156 officials if the bills were not settled by July 14.
Though the SGP sought two months’ time for honouring the commitment, the judge said: “Seeking two months’ time is very unfair, Sir. Whoever is responsible for having engaged him to argue cases on behalf of them should settle the bills at the earliest.” He later directed the High Court Registry to post the writ petition for orders after a fortnight.
In his affidavit, Mr. Chellapandian said he had appeared on behalf of a host of government authorities, including Principal Secretaries to the government, Collectors, Commissioners and Superintendents of Police, besides officials of Forest department, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and Anna University.
“However, right from the year 2011, many fee bills are pending before the respondent departments and there is no response whatsoever despite several reminders. On January 9, 2017, I sent representations to each one of the respondent departments through registered post indicating the fee bill date, case numbers and other details.
“The said representations have been received by the respondents concerned and acknowledgements have been received. Even though a period of five months has lapsed since then, so far the respondents have not chosen to honour the fee bills,” the Senior Counsel said, and sought a direction to settle the bills within a time frame to be fixed by the court.
