Appointment of law officers a prerogative of State government: Madras High Court

By Express News Service  |   Published: 17th March 2017 05:39 AM  |  

CHENNAI: The First Benchof Madras High Court, of acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekka Raman, has held that the appointment of law officers for lower level courts up to the high court is purely the prerogative of the State which cannot be interfered with by courts.

When the batch of PILs, including one from advocate Vasanthakumar, which challenged the appointment of law officers, came up before the Bench on Thursday, the first Bench held that the courts could not interfere with the administrative functions of the Government.

The petitioners’ main contention was that persons close to the ruling party alone were given the law officers’ posts.

Holding that the petitioners had no locus standi to raise a question on the issue, it disposed of all the PILs and gave liberty to the State Government to act in line with the Supreme Court guidelines. If there was any violation of these guidelines, the petitioners could approach the apex court under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Bench said.
Earlier, the first Bench headed by Chief Justice SK Kaul (since elevated to Supreme Court) had admitted the PILs and appointed an amicus curiae to frame draft rules for the appointments.