New Delhi: Lawyers usually charge their fees before they argue for clients in the courts. But when they appear for governments and their departments, lawyers have to raise bills which are cleared later.
For a lawyer, it has taken 24 years to get paid for the work he did as a counsel for the Rajasthan government. And the remuneration had to wait for an order of the Supreme Court.
Drawing curtains on the protracted episode, a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana has directed the Rajasthan government to pay Rs 48 lakh to advocate Aruneshwar Gupta as his legal fees for his appearance on behalf of the state since 1994.
Gupta had raised 57 bills for the period he appeared as an advocate for the state government but the bills were not cleared.
The amount of Rs 48 lakh as total fees was proposed by senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, who was appointed as amicus curiae to ascertain the monies payable to Gupta by the state government.
Naphade was requested to assist the Court so that the dispute pending for over two decades could be finally resolved.
"Learned counsel appearing for the State as well as the learned counsel appearing for the applicant agreed with the amount arrived at by the learned senior counsel. In view of that, we direct the learned counsel appearing for the State of Rajasthan to pay the entire amount, as aforesaid, within a period of four weeks from today to Mr Aruneshwar Gupta, learned counsel," ordered the bench last week.
The Court also asked the Rajasthan government to shell out another Rs 2.5 lakh towards the assistance rendered by Naphade as the amicus curiae. Naphade instead suggested this money may be given to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for the welfare of its members.
The bench accepted the senior lawyer's suggestion and directed the state government to deposit Rs 2.5 lakh in the SCBA fund.
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