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PIL filed against appointments of TN standing counsel

A Madras-based advocate today filed a public interest writ petition in the Madras high court seeking to declare as arbitrary, illegal and null and void, the appointment of 33 lawyers owing allegiance to the All India Anna DMK as central government standing counsels.

The petitioner, C Vijayakumar, prayed for an interim injunction to restrain the Union law, finance and home secretaries from engaging the 33 lawyers to represent the Centre in cases involving former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha now under the purview of the central agencies like the income-tax department and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He said within two weeks of assuming office, the new government at the Centre in which the AIADMK was a partner, asked lawyers representing the central agencies to resign and replaced them with 33 lawyers who are either members or supporters of the AIADMK.

He claimed that Jayalalitha, who returned to Madras from New Delhi on April 2, brought along the appointment letters of senior central government standing counsel R Muthukumaraswamy and 32 others. They were all called to her Poes Garden home where she handed over the appointment letters to them, he added.

Vijayakumar submitted that the appointments had deepened the suspicion about the fate of the cases against Jayalalitha and her erstwhile cabinet colleagues and Indian Administrative Service officers.

The statement of Union Law Minister M Thambidurai that the appointments were made as per rules was not correct, he contended, and alleged that the advocates were all picked up with the sole intention of demolishing the cases against her.

He submitted that if the appointments were not declared null and void, it could set a bad precedent and erode the faith of the common man in the judiciary.

UNI

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