Assam: DCs empowered to appoint special counsels for complicated legal cases

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The state government has now empowered District Commissioners (DCs) to appoint special counsels, outside the existing team of government pleaders/public prosecutors, etc., to represent the government in critical and complicated legal cases.

This has been necessitated by the fact that in many cases the DCs are made parties in both civil and criminal litigations, and in some cases it appears that due to improper conduct of cases, adverse orders are passed against the government, and in some cases, the necessity of engaging special counsels is felt essential for the greater government interest.

Therefore, in order to overcome such situations, the state government, through a notification issued by the Judicial Department, felt it necessary to bestow power upon the DCs to appoint special counsels, outside the existing team of government pleaders/public prosecutors, etc., to represent the government in critical and complicated legal cases.

Accordingly, after careful consideration of all the pros and cons, and in supersession of an earlier notification issued by the Judicial Department, it was decided to lay down the following guidelines for engagement/appointment of Special Counsels/Special Govt. Pleader/Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) by the District Commissioner in cases that are sensitive, complex, or of significant public interest.

The SOP shall apply only to cases of sensitive and complex nature or cases of significant public interest (both criminal and civil) requiring specialised legal expertise as deemed necessary by the DC within the jurisdiction of the DC.

As for the roles and responsibilities, the DC will initiate, appoint and forward the same with justification informing the government; the District Prosecution Officer (DPO)/Government Pleader will evaluate legal complexity and prepare case summaries; the Home & Political Department is entrusted with keeping the appointment notification issued by the DC for record; the Judicial Department has to keep the appointment notification issued by the DC for record; and the Legal Cell (Office of the District Commissioner) has to maintain case records and correspondence.

All the special PP/special government pleader/special counsels are to deal with the cases being entrusted in consultation with the respective DCs and have to treat all such case records as confidential and may share only on a need-to-know basis.

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