Five months after the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government took over reins in Punjab, it has notified the appointment of 161 law officers at its advocate general (AG) office in Chandigarh and legal cell in Delhi.
They include 13 senior additional advocates general, 28 additional advocates general, 40 deputy advocates general and 65 assistant advocates general in Chandigarh. For Delhi, 15 law officers have been appointed, including five additional advocates general, four deputy advocates general, four advocates on record and two assistant advocates general. All these appointments are for Supreme Court.
Since March, those appointed during the previous Congress government were continuing. During the Congress tenure, the number of law officers at the AG office in Chandigarh remained 150-160. For Delhi, it had a separate list of 70 law officers.
“All appointments have been done on merit. You won’t find any political tinge here. At least three dozen law officers are such who were appointed by previous Congress government and after evaluating their performance, they have been retained,” state’s advocate general Vinod Ghai said. However, the government on Saturday also issued an advertisement for recruitment of law officers in SC category.
Last month, senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu had resigned as state’s advocate general. He was appointed on March 20 soon after the new government took charge in Punjab. Though he cited personal reasons for quitting, his resignation was attributed to the differences with AAP leadership over the list of law officers and “interference in the working” of the AG office. The present AG took over on July 30.
{{/usCountry}}Last month, senior advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu had resigned as state’s advocate general. He was appointed on March 20 soon after the new government took charge in Punjab. Though he cited personal reasons for quitting, his resignation was attributed to the differences with AAP leadership over the list of law officers and “interference in the working” of the AG office. The present AG took over on July 30.
{{/usCountry}}Four linked to judges on the list
At least four in the list are those who are related to former or sitting judges of the high court. These include Haryana Lokayukta and former judge justice Pritam Pal’s son Aman Pal, Justice HS Brar’s daughter and sitting judge justice Lisa Gill’s sister, Anu Pal, justice Lalit Batra’s daughter Swati Batra and Siddharth Attri, who is the son of Justice Raj Shekhar Attri (retd). Also on the list are former Himachal Pradesh high court judge justice Surjit Singh’s son Jasdev Singh Mehndiratta and Deepali Puri, wife of former CM Captain Amarinder’s OSD Sandeep Sandhu.