Full Judgment Text
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* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
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Date of decision: 28 January, 2021
+ W.P.(C) 1309/2020 & CM APPL. 23676/2020
PABITRA ROYCHAUDHURI ..... Petitioner
Through: Petitioner in person.
versus
COMMISSIONER OF VAT, DELHI AND ANR. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Gautam Narayan, ASC for
GNCTD with Ms. Dacchita Shahi &
Mr. Adithya Nair, Advocates (M:
9811411735).
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
Prathiba M. Singh, J.(Oral)
1. This hearing has been done by video conferencing.
2. The present litigation is the unfortunate consequence of the Petitioner,
who was appointed as a lawyer for representing the GNCTD before the High
Court of Delhi, not being paid his professional fees.
3. The case of the Petitioner is that he was appointed as the Additional
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Standing Counsel (Civil) on 24 June, 2016. Between July, 2016 to August,
2017, he submitted various bills for the professional services rendered by
him, which constituted about 124 bills. The appointment of the Petitioner
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was withdrawn by the GNCTD on 8 September, 2017, however, his bills
totalling to Rs.26,31,200/- were not cleared. Accordingly, the Petitioner
prays for issuance of a writ of mandamus for payment of the said bills.
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4. Notice was issued in the matter on 13 March, 2020. Thereafter, on
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24 September, 2020, ld. counsel appearing for the GNCTD submitted that
the bills of the Petitioner have been sanctioned and the sanction letters have
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
W.P.(C) 1309/2020 Page 1 of 3
Signing Date:29.01.2021 21:02
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also been issued. On 21 October, 2020 the Court records that the amounts
mentioned in two of the three sanction orders have been duly credited to the
Petitioner’s account, however, the monthly retainership amount which was
agreed to at the time of his engagement has not been paid.
5. Mr. Gautam Narayan, ld. ASC appearing for the GNCTD submits that
the fact that the lawyers are paid a monthly retainership is not disputed,
however, he has not received any instructions as to when the said payments
are likely to be released.
6. The Supreme Court has, in the case of State of Rajasthan & Anr. v.
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Luna Ram & Ors. [Criminal Appeal No. 1718/1995, order dated 18 May,
2018] , dealt with a similar case wherein the State Government of Rajasthan
was directed to pay the arrears of its Panel Advocates. Recently, a ld.
Division Bench of this Court in Piyush Gupta v. GNCTD & Ors. [W.P.(C)
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5373/2020, decided on 1 December, 2020], has also taken note of several
grievances regarding the non-payment of professional fee/retainership fee
bills of empanelled lawyers of the GNCTD and directed the GNCTD to
clear the outstanding payments as early as possible.
7. Lawyers and counsels who are engaged by various
Governments/Departments render their professional services to the said
Departments and Governments. The respective Governments /Departments
are expected to clear the professional bills of the lawyers within a reasonable
time. Under no circumstances should a counsel who has been engaged by
the Government/Department be forced to sue his/her own client, especially a
government or its agency, and seek legal remedies for seeking clearance of
his/her professional fee.
8. The fact that the Petitioner was forced to approach this Court is
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
W.P.(C) 1309/2020 Page 2 of 3
Signing Date:29.01.2021 21:02
extremely unfortunate. Though the professional bills of the Petitioner are
stated to have now been cleared, his retainership fee is still not being paid.
Since there is no dispute on the factum that retainership fee is to be paid, this
Court directs the GNCTD to clear the pending retainership payments to the
Petitioner within one month from today.
9. Needless to add, Governments/Departments are directed to ensure that
the fees of the lawyers appointed by them are cleared within a reasonable
time after the bills are submitted to them and lawyers are not forced to file
petitions for the said purpose.
10. With these observations, the present petition, along with all pending
applications, is disposed of.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH
JUDGE
JANUARY 28, 2021
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Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
W.P.(C) 1309/2020 Page 3 of 3
Signing Date:29.01.2021 21:02