BMC caps legal fees; paid ₹8 crore in dues this year

Civic body cleared 2,669 bills amounting to ₹36 crore in 2017-18

Mumbai, Maharashtra, 02/02/2018: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's budget for the yerar 2018-19 being presented in standing committee, at headquarter on Febraury 02, 2018. Photo: Vivek Bendre

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has capped the legal fee of senior counsels at ₹50,000 per hearing for cases filed in the High Court and ₹75,000 for cases in the Supreme Court.

The decision was taken after the civic body observed that it had spent ₹8.86 crore in legal fees on 925 cases (bills) so far this year and ₹36 crore on 2,669 cases in 2017-18. The BMC has 76,884 cases pending in city courts.

Report exposes flaws

The recommendation was made in an investigation report on the loss of the civic body’s plot in Jogeshwari, which was authored by deputy municipal commissioner Nidhi Choudhari, who is in-charge of the law department. The municipal commissioner, who will now have to approve claims by lawyers beyond the fee cap, has called for a time-bound execution of the report’s recommendations.

The report pointed out flaws in the functioning of the legal and development planning departments and recommended short-term and long-term measures to overhaul them. The report showed that the BMC had spent large sums of money on the legal department’s establishment costs and fees to senior lawyers.

Ms. Choudhari said that BMC began a special drive in March this year to clear legal bills pending since 2012. The report recommended setting up four supervision committees, including one headed by the municipal commissioner, to periodically review the pending cases. The report suggested that the chief law officer look into the pending bills and clear them within three months.

Slew of suggestions

Other recommendations include the chief law officer going through legal opinions given by the legal department, implementing a litigation policy and an e-office system to keep track of pending cases, abolishing old panels and relieving lawyers from cases pending for years. Lawyers will now be assigned cases as per a roster and paid based on a new fee structure to ensure efficiency and transparency.

The report has also recommended installing a photocopy machine in the legal department as the BMC spends around ₹10 lakh on photocopying legal documents every year.