Reported by Thehindu.com on June 25, 2012
The Hindu : NATIONAL / KARNATAKA : AG accused of nepotism in appointing government lawyer

Aires Rodrigues petitions Governor against Atmaram Nadkarni

Activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues has filed a complaint with Goa Governor B.V. Wanchoo alleging nepotism by Advocate-General Atmaram Nadkarni for accommodating his own inexperienced junior as an Additional Government Advocate in the High Court.

The complainant has drawn Governor’s attention to the note moved on March 13 by Mr. Nadkarni recommending among others the name of Prachi Sawant for appointment as Additional Government Advocate in the High Court although she had not even completed one year of passing the law degree.

Mr. Rodrigues has substantiated his complaint by attaching a copy of that note which he obtained from the Law Department under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Questioning as to how the Government could expect such a person to defend the interest of the State before the High Court, the complainant has recalled that Ms. Sawant had objected to her bio-data being disclosed under the RTI.

Conceding that the recommending of names for appointment of government advocates in the High Court might be the discretion of the Advocate General, Mr. Rodrigues demanded that this discretion had to be judicious and could not be arbitrary.

He said that since the government advocates were paid from the State coffers, it was pertinent that experience, competence, and merit should be the sole criteria in the appointment of government advocates particularly in the High Court so that the State’s interests were adequately defended. Recalling that he had raised the issue of how the former Advocate-General Subodh Kantak at the cost of the State exchequer had accommodated his own nephew initially as a clerk while he was a law student and thereafter as Additional Government Advocate, Mr. Rodrigues had lamented that nothing appeared to have changed with the new government in place.

He has urged, in the petition submitted on Friday, the Governor to direct appropriate action in the matter.