The Andhra Pradesh government prefers to go to court for any slightest problem. Whatever the issue may be, the AP government always finds itself in court, whether it filed the petition or not. Moreover, those who have a problem with the government also land up in court to resolve their issues, and no matter what, the verdict of the court is usually not in the government’s favour.
Recently, the government released a GO, stating that it is due to pay Rs. 96 Lakhs as the fee to Lawyer Niranjan Reddy, as he had and continues to argue on behalf of the government in all the cases regarding the capital issues of AP. Following the release of this GO, there have been various outcries from various sections of the society, with people pointing out that there are many senior lawyers than Niranjan Reddy who argue for a much lesser fee.
A petition has been filed against the government on this issue, in the High Court, and Y. Srilakshmi, Special Principal Secretary of Urban Development Department and AG S Sriram have been named as the personal respondents in this petition. While the GO caused a sensation in the state, the fact that lawyers have filed this petition in the HC is causing another sensation.
Apart from Niranjan Reddy, CV Mohan Reddy and Mukul Rohatgi have also been paid in lakhs, or crores, for arguing on behalf of the government in various cases. There’s a lot of outrage on the AP government using people’s money to pay for these lawyers, as many believe that these lawyers are being paid for arguing on behalf of Jagan in his illegal assets cases and that the government is sugar-coating over it, saying that these lawyers are being paid for arguing on behalf of the government in the capital cases.
Usually, any state government usually hires lawyers from other states in case of only crucial cases, and usually sticks to lawyers from their own state for other cases. However, this is not the case with the AP government, which always hires lawyers from other places. This petition is now pending in the High Court for hearing, and clarity on why the government has to pay such huge amounts as fee can be expected once the hearing and investigation on the petition begin.