Delhi government to hire private lawyers for legal opinion

In attempt to bring in more professionals for effective governance, the AAP government has started looking for private law practitioners and retired government officers having requisite law degrees from recognised universities to provide legal opinion on a host of contentious issues and for vetting of statutory documents in the national capital.

The AAP government’s decision to hire private professionals is based on experience it has had with its officers in handling the legal matters. In a letter to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had earlier said that he had noticed that vetting of agreements and contracts was not being done by the law department because of the absence of skilled manpower.

Mr Sisodia had written in his letter: “I have also noticed that vetting of statutory orders/ notifications etc. also gets delayed as the two consultants from the law department are probably not able to cope up with the volume of work. The problem was extremely acute during the last Assembly session when many such statutory documents had to be withdrawn by the departments concerned due to delays of the law department.” Mr Sisodia had reportedly recommended hiring of practising advocates and retired officers for vetting non-statutory agreements, contracts and for rendering legal opinion on various issues.

Now, the government has put up advertisements inviting applications from practising advocates having seven years of experience in the Delhi high court and retired officers with 10 years experience in legislative drafting for rendering legal opinion and vetting of statutory documents respectively.

In one notice, the AAP government said that the department of law, justice and legislative affairs required the services of two practising advocates having put in not less than seven years of practice in the Delhi high court as full-time consultants to render legal opinion on various issues. It, however, made it clear that the engagement would be on a contract basis with a consolidated remuneration of Rs 75,000 per month for a period of one year, which may be extended for further two years on mutually agreed basis. The applicants have to apply with all requisite details by March 11.

In another notice, the AAP government said the law department required the services of two retired officers with a law degree from a recognised university with a minimum of 10 years’ experience in the field of legislative drafting with an excellent service record in the field for the post of consultants for vetting of statutory documents. It said the engagement will be on a contract basis with a consolidated remuneration of Rs 50,000 per month or the last pay drawn minus pension with applicable dearness allowance. The notice said that the engagement will be initially for a period of one year and can be extended for further two years, on mutually agreed terms.

The Kejriwal government had earlier assigned special secretary C. Arvind for vetting Cabinet notices and bills and to look after the law department’s administration. It had assigned the job of vetting litigations, notifications and other rules to special secretary Ravi Dadich.