Delhi LG has stalled appointment of public prosecutors, says AAP
Jun 29, 2022
New Delhi [India], June 30 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has stalled the appointment of public prosecutors and standing counsels in a bid to reverse the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation's decision.
The allegation is dismissed by sources in the LG office as "frivolous, bereft of facts and misleading"
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi said that the Lt Governor has stalled the appointments raising questions on the entire selection process even though the names of the candidates for empanelment of government counsels were cleared by the Delhi High Court.
"The Delhi government had sent the file containing the final list of selected candidates to inform the LG before issuing a notification. But, the LG raised objections to the selection process and asked us to send the bio-data of all the candidates," she claimed.
"He wants to scrutinise them again and decide who can become public prosecutors, standing counsels, and additional standing counsels," she added.
The proposal for empanelment of 44 Standing Counsels/Additional Standing Counsels and Additional Public Prosecutors recommended by the Committee headed by Law Minister, GNCTD, were put up before the then LG and were statutorily sent to the Hon'ble Delhi High Court for their concurrence.
The High Court rejected four names and conveyed their consent for 40 names only to GNCTD on June 3, 2022, subject to certain conditions that included taking undertakings from the concerned advocates regarding briefs that they could accept.
Thereafter, a proposal incorporating the 40 names and observations of the Hon'ble High Court was put up to the LG on June 10, 2022, without including the bio-data of the recommended candidates which is an obvious pre-requisite for due diligence.
It is underlined that as per extant guidelines dated April 27, 2010, the Lt. Governor in consultation with the Hon'ble Delhi High Court is the competent authority for the appointment of Standing Counsel (Criminal)/Additional Standing Counsel (Criminal)/ Additional Public Prosecutor.
Accordingly, the file was returned to the Law Department, GNCTD with the direction from LG to place on record the bio-data of all the recommended candidates for empanelment as Standing Counsel/Additional Standing Counsel/ Additional Public Prosecutor.
A reply thereto is yet pending on part of the GNCTD. With matters as clear and precise as this, it is expected that those making statements on the contrary, refrain from such mischievously misleading and factually incorrect assertions in the future.
