The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday pulled up the State government for not filing its counter affidavit to a batch of public interest litigation petitions challenging the appointment of law officers in the State.
A Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan expressed its displeasure to Additional Advocate General B. Pugalendhi, when one of the counsel, representing a law officer whose appointment had been stayed, urged the court to lift the stay since a vacuum had been created in the lower courts due to absence of law officers.
Pointing out that the stay had been granted by two other Division Benches of the High Court and that it could not be lifted unless the State government filed a counter affidavit along with an application for vacating the stay, the judges wondered how long the State government would remain silent.
Hearing on July 18
When the AAG pointed out that filing of a counter affidavit was a laborious process, Mr. Justice Sasidharan said: “You are talking as if the law department is in Pakistan and the others in Bangladesh. ”
Later, the judges adjourned the hearing to July 18 after recording the submissions of the AAG that a similar case challenging the appointment of law officers was pending before the First Division Bench in the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai and that efforts would be taken to get the present batch of cases transferred to Chennai.
Third adjournment
They also recorded that it was the third occasion when the Additional Advocate-General had sought adjournment on the ground that the State government had requested Advocate-General R. Muthukumaraswamy to conduct the cases on behalf of the State and to make a mention before the First Division Bench, led by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, to get the cases transferred.
On July 4, the Bench led by Mr. Justice Sasidharan clarified that the law officers whose tenure in Karur, Pudukottai, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts had come to an end could not continue to remain in office by virtue of interim stay orders passed by the court.
