`TEMPORARY BASIS' - HC seeks report on appointment of law officers in Virudhunagar

Madurai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Tuesday directed the government to file records pertaining to the appointment of law officers to courts in Virudhunagar district. A division bench headed by justice K K Sasidharan gave the direction on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate S Ramasubramanian from Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar. The petitioner's counsel told the court that the additional chief secretary passed a government order (GO) on May 25 appointing 15 advocates as law officers to the courts in the Virudhunagar district.

The government made the appointments without following mandatory procedure contemplated under the criminal procedure code.The government's action will affect the justice delivery system. Hence, it was necessary to stay all the proceedings based on the GO and quash the same, the counsel said.

Senior counsel appearing for one of the advocates appointed as public prosecutor said the appointments were made temporarily . The government already started the process of appointing law officers a few months ago. Based on it, the collector of Virudhunagar issued notification inviting applications from the legal fraternity. If the appointments were stayed, there would be vacancies for law officers' posts, he said.

The additional advocate general also said the appointments were a temporary measure and advocates appointed were eligible people to be appointed as law officers.

The division bench said that if it (government) had taken action properly , it would have made permanent appointments by this time.