TN government relaxes norms to appoint law officers

Taking into consideration the large pressure that COVID-19 has taken on the authorized occupation with many attorneys struggling with out an earnings and a few having left the occupation a minimum of quickly, the State government has relaxed the foundations which give weightage to the variety of court docket appearances and the gross earnings earned in final three years earlier than appointing advocates to characterize the State, earlier than the Madras High Court and its Bench in Madurai.

A Government Order (GO) issued by the Public (Law Officers) Department on Friday amended the Law Officers of High Court of Madras and its Bench at Madurai (Appointment) Rules of 2017. Pursuant to the modification, candidates to the submit of law officers needn’t submit both the checklist of circumstances during which they’d appeared within the final seven years or the earnings tax returns filed by them within the final three years to show their earnings from the occupation.

The GO additionally made clear that it might be enough if the candidates submit certificates both from recognised Bar associations within the High Court or from a senior lawyer with 25 years of standing within the Bar to show that they meet the minimal skilled expertise required for the submit involved. It additional acknowledged that the amendments had been being made following three letters written by Advocate General (A-G) R. Shunmugasundaram between June 18 and July 7.

When contacted, the A-G mentioned the pandemic had a devastating impact on the authorized occupation with many advocates not having any transient and consequent earnings to maintain themselves. Some weren’t even able to pay subscriptions to the Bar associations to which they had been connected. While younger attorneys had been struggling due to restricted functioning of courts, a few of the aged attorneys couldn’t get accustomed to expertise to attend the digital hearings.

“In my estimate, at least 30% of young lawyers practising in the Madras High Court have left Chennai and gone to their native places at least temporarily. Under such circumstances, it would be unfair to expect them to have conducted a particular number of cases and to have earned good amount of income from the profession in the last three years to be eligible to apply for law officer posts. Therefore, we thought it fit to relax the norms,” he mentioned.

Nevertheless, the minimal expertise required to be appointed to varied posts corresponding to Government Advocate, Additional Government Pleader, Special Government Pleader and so forth stay unaltered and that have might be proved by submitting certificates from Bar associations and senior attorneys, the A-G added.