Symbolic pictures.
The Ministry of Law and Justice has issued an office memorandum for fair and transparent allocation of cases to central government defense teams. The memorandum was issued following complaints about the “unfair and non-transparent” allocation of cases by trial managers in the High Court, District Courts and Tribunals.
The office memo noted that this approach harmed not only the advocates of other panels but also the interests of the central government. Apart from this, allocating general or routine cases to senior category advocates creates unnecessary burden.
These guidelines are issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice:
- Cases of ordinary/routine nature may be assigned to the Panel Advisor on a rotating basis (except Additional SGI/Deputy SGI/Senior Panel Advisor).
- If the ministry recommends in writing the name of a consultant to a particular group, appropriate justification should be given.
- Important, sensitive and high risk cases involving the constitutional validity of the challenged provisions may be assigned to the Additional SGI/Deputy SGI/Senior Advisory Committee and/or the relevant Ministries/Departments upon specific written request.
- If the legal issues or facts involved in two or more cases are basically similar, and the main difference lies in the names, addresses, amounts involved, etc. of the parties, they will be heard regardless of whether they are tried together; a. Only expert panel consultants can be assigned, and individual cases cannot be assigned.
- Panel Advisor, other than Additional SGI/Deputy SGI/Senior Panel Advisor, on a case-by-case basis; SGI/Senior Legal Advisor should not exceed 10% of the total Central Government cases pending before the High Courts/Tribunals/District and Subordinate Courts at any time .
- It should be ensured that all panel attorneys activate their LIMBS IDs and are regularly updated on the status of cases assigned to them.
- Departments must monitor cases through the LIMBS portal.
- Monthly reports on cases assigned to panel legal counsel should be submitted to the Department regularly via email. The guidelines should go into effect immediately, the office memo said.
