HC asks Centre, Delhi govt to clear pending bills of empanelled lawyers
Dec 01, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 1 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to clear all the six-month-old pending bills of their respective empanelled lawyers.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued the interim direction while hearing an intervening application, which said that professional fees of several government panelled lawyers have been pending from many months.
The application was seeking impleadment in the main petition filed by Piyush Gupta through advocate Kapil Goyal seeking direction to immediately clear the pending professional fee bills of panel advocates of government.
Gupta, in his petition, said that government counsels play a vital role in justice delivery system but "it is unfortunate that administration has no concern for their livelihood as their professional bills are lying pending since long which is their only source of income but the concerned departments have not cleared their bills despite various representations and despite specific directions by the court in its order dated September 3 2015."
A large number of advocates are empanelled to represent different government authorities.
