Monitoring of Advocate fees given by Govt. of Odisha through RTI

Monitoring of Advocate fees given by  Govt. of Odisha   through RTI

( Bulletin-1)

 It  has  been  discussed several times in Mass Media  that  huge fees  is given  to Advocates  by the State  Government  to  fight out  the cases lodged by the  citizens/ aggrieved  parties to protect  itself  from   different scams  or  not  to allow any independent investigation  into ay scam  like mining scam, Chit Fund Scam etc. in the state at the cost  of the state exchequer.   To fight out  a Mining  loot  Case  in Odisha High  Court, the State Govt. had paid Rs. 32 lakh  to a Supreme Court Advocate for  a single day of appearance  in the  hearing  of the case. It  is the prerogative of the  State Government to engage Advocates  in  different  courts and tribunals  to fight out the  cases  filed  against  any decision of the Government  by the aggrieved  parties.

As  the money paid to  the Advocates  is  the people’s  money,  each  citizen has  right to know  about the recipients  of the money, purpose of the payments  and the benefits  of the Govt.  from these payments  etc.  Keeping it in mind, RTI Application was submitted to different Govt. Departments seeking information about  details of budgetary provisions made each year to fight the cases in courts and advocates fees paid  to different advocates etc.  from 2009-10 to 2014-15.  The PIOs of different  Departments  have not provided  me complete  information.  The Readers  will get astonished  how such huge  money has been given  to  many advocates  to fight the  cases   in different  courts  for years together without  any  results.

At first,  I present herewith  the details of   major fees  given  to  Advocates  by the Department of Steel and Mines,  Govt. of Odisha from 2009-10 to 2014-15

Year	Name of Advocates	Amount paid  ( In Rs.)	Case No.
2009-10	K.K.Venugopal	5, 80,000	CA No.- 1883/2006, SLP Case No. 14610/2009
2010-11	K.K.Venugopal	3,30,000	WPC No.- 202/1995
2011-12	K.K.Venugopal	6,30,000	CA No- 1883/2006
2009-10	Srikant Nayak	7,79,000	Around more than 50  Writ Petition Cases
2010-11	Srikant Nayak	1,62,000	5 WP Cases
2012-13	Srikant Nayak	1,07,800	WP C No 2076/09 & 81 other cases
2009-10	Anindya Kumar Mitra	5,75,000	WPC No. 23/09
2010-11	Anindya Kumar Mitra	8,25,000	WP C No.- 146/09
	S.K.Dutta		WPC No.-23/09
	S. Giri		WP C No-23/09
2010-11	R.Ramachadram	3,80,000	SLP Case No.- 15768/11
2012-13	R. Ramachandram	1,90,000	WP C No.-33926/10
		1,65,000	SLP C No-33926/10
2010-11	Makul Rahatogi	17,90,000	PIL CASES WPC No- 13858/09
2011-12	Makul Rahatogi	7,10,000	CA No- 1883/2006
2012-13	L. Nageswar Rao	2,25,000	WP C No-60/2013
		2,25,000	SLP Case NO-11250/12
2013-14	L. Nageswar Rao	4,80,000	SLP Case No.- 20635/11
2012-13	Dipankar Gupta	6,00,000	CP No.-7090/12
2012-13	A.H.Desai	5,50,000	WP C No- 429/12
2013-14	A.H.Desai	5,50,000	WP C No- 429/12
		16,50,000	WP C No- 120/12
2014-15	A.H.Desai	11,00,000

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 15.7.15