SURAJ NANDREKAR
suraj@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: A peculiar case has arisen wherein a government agency says that a lawyer they had not appointed has billed them for a case in which another lawyer was appointed by them.
The case is of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), which says that the former Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni has billed them Rs 3 lakh per hearing without their approval for representation. The issue came up at the 140th Board meeting, held on June 30. The minutes of the meeting were uploaded on their website on Wednesday.
The minutes read, “Member Secretary informed the members that the board during the 132nd meeting held on 27/03/2018 vide agenda item no 4 had resolved that the Ld Senior Advocate of the Board be permitted to appear along with a junior or briefing advocate and an advocate on record in matter before courts/judicial forum at New Delhi, for which a specific letter of allotment will be issued by the Board.”
It further says that professional fees were fixed at Rs 3 lakh per appearance made by the advocate on behalf of the Board, before court/judicial forum in allotted matters.
“The MS further informed the members that Senior Advocate ANS Nadkarni has submitted professional memo of fees amounting to Rs 3 lakh each for appearance with respect to following matters: Civil appeal no 12251/2018 (Hanuman Laxman Aroskar v/s Union of India and ors) before the Supreme Court of India on 11/02/2019, 18/02/2019, 19/02/2019, 20/02/2019, 21/02/2019, 27/02/2019, 20/04/2019, 25/04/2019, 29/04/2019,” the minutes read.
It further states that as per records of the case, the Board has not issued any allotment letter to Nadkarni to appear on behalf of the Board in the matter for which memo of professional fees has been submitted.
“The Board had instead issued allotment letter to Adv Jai Dehadrai for appearing before the Supreme Court and defending Board’s interest in the matter. Adv Jai Dehadrai has also forwarded his memo of professional fees of Rs 5,500 per appearance for settlement for putting up his appearance before the court,” it says.
After deliberations, the members decided to write to Nadkarni and seek clarification with regards to his appearance, when the Board had not issued him any allotment letter for appearing on their behalf.
When contacted by Herald, Nadkarni said, “If they feel I have not represented then let them not pay me.”
When pointed that Dehadrai has also submitted his bills, Nadkarni said, “Dehadrai is my junior. I do not want to get involved in this dirty politics. This is nothing more than political witch-hunt. The Board officials including Joglekar (GSPCB official) had come personally to my office to brief me in this case. If someone wants I can give them my office CCTV footage.”
Dehadrai, speaking to Herald, said he was absolutely stunned to know GSPCB is saying this. “I was the briefing lawyer for Nadkarni. The letter was in my name but all departments had standing instructions of Nadkarni appearing for them in SC. I don’t know what dirty politics is being played but this is what I can say,” he said.
Former Advocate General Dattaprasad Lawande, on the other hand, told Herald that as he was the AG then he had asked Nadkarni to appear for the Board. “As an AG it was my prerogative to appoint a counsel or a lawyer on record, and I had appointed Nadkarni as counsel in this case as it was a very important case for Goa,” he said.
The Member Secretary also informed that the Board had resolved to pay Lawande (then advocate general) an amount of Rs 10,000 for each hearing before the HC of Bombay at Goa and an amount of Rs 75,000 for each hearing in the Supreme Court and tribunal courts outside the State of Goa.
“In accordance with the relevant position of order dated 08/04/2012 issued by the Law Department, Government of Goa as he was appointed as the Advocate General, State of Goa,” the minutes say.
The members deliberated on the fees to be paid to Lawande as he is no longer AG. After discussion, it was decided to continue with his services to represent the Board.
