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Prayagraj, 25 September (HS). Allahabad High Court has made a serious comment on the careless attitude of government lawyers in filing affidavits. The court said that government lawyers often show carelessness while filing affidavits before the court.
This order has been passed by the bench of Justice Piyush Agarwal on the petition of Mrs. Indravati Devi and others. The court said that despite repeated instructions to remove such shortcomings, the state government is continuously adopting a careless attitude. The court has directed to send this order to the Advocate General and Principal Secretary of Justice of Uttar Pradesh.
The court said, “The attitude of the state authorities and the lawyers representing the state is very casual. The court has given liberty on various occasions to rectify the mistakes or deficiencies in filing the affidavit, but all in vain.”
The court made this remark while taking note of certain discrepancies in the personal affidavit submitted by the District Magistrate of Bhadohi in a case wherein the stamp duty assessment for a certain land was challenged.
The court had sought a personal affidavit from the DM Bhadohi after he failed to file the affidavit despite repeated extensions of time. The state was also ordered to ensure that its counter affidavit is filed. In a personal affidavit filed later, the district magistrate assured that he did not intend to violate the earlier directions of the court. He said that he was never informed about the court's orders. He said that as a result, the counter affidavit could not be filed within the stipulated time limit.
However, the Court was surprised to find several errors in the affidavit. One of such errors was that a wrong reference was made to the High Court instead of the District Magistrate. The Court said that a reading of the paragraph did not make it clear what the District Magistrate was trying to say.
The court also said that though the affidavit was filed by the District Magistrate, it erroneously mentioned on one page that the affidavit was filed by the “Commissioner of Police”.
The court directed to re-submit the affidavit and point out these errors in its order of September 17. The High Court said that similar mistakes were also noticed in the order of September 13 passed in another recent case (Vijay Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh). In that case, the court had directed the Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh and the Principal Secretary (Law) of the Government of Uttar Pradesh to take cognizance of such issues.
While issuing the order, the court said, “This matter should also be placed before the Advocate General and Principal Secretary (Law) and LR of Uttar Pradesh so that they can look into the matter. The court has asked the Registrar (Compliance) to inform the Advocate General and Principal Secretary (Law) and LR of Uttar Pradesh about this order within a week from today. The court will hear this matter on November 4.