Prayagraj (UP), March 13 The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh government, as well as the Advocate General, to inform the court about the steps taken to expedite the recruitment process for government advocates in the high court, stating that a shortage of staff is making it difficult to provide proper assistance to the court.
A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Ajit Kumar and Swarupama Chaturvedi, in their order dated February 26, directed that a proper affidavit be filed by the relevant secretary of the state government by the next date, failing which the court will be compelled to take serious note of the matter.
Hearing a writ petition filed by a man named Subedar Yadav, the court observed, "Whether it is the government or the Advocate General, if, due to a shortage of staff or any other inconvenience, the state law officer/additional Advocate General fails to make proper arrangements for files, and as a result, the court is unable to hear the matters due to lack of proper assistance, it amounts to interference in the administration of justice."
The court stated that if the system is paralyzed either due to a failure to fill vacancies in time or due to a lack of vacancies, the justice delivery system will certainly fail.
The court made these observations after noticing that the records of the state counsels were not being updated while hearing the writ petition.
In addition, the court also noted that the state counsels were not fully aware of the details needed to update the court, because the files were not being sent to them in advance, and further, the lack of proper record-keeping was also causing inconvenience to the court in its administration of justice.
The high-ranking state law officers, present in the court, argued that all of this was attributable to a shortage of class three and class four staff in the state law office. They submitted that the recruitment process is undertaken only after the state government sanctions or grants permission.