Government Counsels - Underpaid?
THE other day I was sitting in a Tribunal listening to a Senior Counsel's arguments. A lawyer sitting next to me asked me how much the Sr. Counsel would charge for arguing the case. I told him, "about Eight Lakh rupees". The lawyer almost fell down from his seat and then asked me how much the Special Senior Counsel engaged by the Revenue would get. I told him "about Eight Thousand rupees" ! Again, he almost fell off.
In this week's The Cob(Web), Editor Shailendra wrote, "The political masters and the policy makers have no longer time to procrastinate the decision to break the vicious cycle of filing appeal in every sundry case, which contributes to the mountains of cases and that becomes an excuse for not paying enough attention to even quality cases and also an instrument for making money by logging more cases, which makes up for low fees. Ironically, the law officers are paid 'humiliatingly low sum' per case (look for more details in DDT Column tomorrow) , which coax them to focus on number rather than the quality. And this vicious cycle can be overcome only by substantially reducing the number of Government cases, followed by substantial hike in the fees for the law officers".
In 2011, the Law Ministry enhanced the fee payable to Counsels in the Supreme Court. The revised fees are as given below.
S. No | Item of Work | Revised Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
Group A Panel Counsel | Group B and C Panel Counsel | ||
1. | All Regular Appeals and defended Writ Petitions (for final hearing) | Rs. 9000/- per case per day | Rs. 6000/- per case per day |
2. | All defended Admission matters (SLP/TP and writ petitions) | Rs. 6000/- per case per day | Rs. 3000/- per case per day |
3. | Setting of pleadings | Rs. 3500/- per case | |
4. | Appearance in Misc. Applications | Rs. 3000/- per case | |
5. | Conference | Rs. 600/- per conference | |
6. | Conveyance charges for local journeys while outside Headquarters | Rs. 1000/- | |
7. | Drafting SLP/Counter Affidavit/Rejoinder etc. | - | Rs. 2000/- per case |
8. | Drafting or Appearance in Misc. applications | Rs. 2000/- per case | |
The fees payable to Senior Counsels in the High Courts and Tribunals are
S. No | Item of Work | Revised Fee |
|---|---|---|
1. | Suits, Writ Petitions and Appeals including oral applications for Leave to Appeal to Supreme Court | Rs. 6000/- per case per day for effective hearing. In case of non effective hearing Rs. 1000/- per day subject to a maximum of 5 hearings. |
2. | Application for Leave to appeal to Supreme Court in Writ Petitions | Rs. 2000/- per case |
3. | Settling of pleadings | Rs. 2000/- per case |
4. | Misc. Applications | Rs. 2000/- per case |
5. | Conference | Rs. 600/- per conference |
In fact, the Revenue Departments do not pay even the above amounts as the CBEC and CBDT had issued their own circulars fixing the fees for their counsels. The CBEC rates were fixed in 2007. I asked a Revenue officer whether they were paying the fees fixed by the Law Ministry to their Counsels. "We are waiting for our Board's instructions", was his reply.The fees payable as per CBEC instructions are as given here: The fees are for Senior Standing Counsels - Standing Counsels and Junior Standing Counsels shall be entitled to only 1/3 rd of the amount specified against each item of work.
1. For appearance in the High Court Appeals under section 130/130A of the Customs Act 1962/Section 35G/35H of Central Excise Act, 1944 /Finance Act 1994/ Civil or Criminal Writ Petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution/orders made in such Petition, including appearance at admission Stage/ for cases before other Authorities. However, for each substantial and effective hearing, following the first hearing, additional fees of Rs.2000/- per substantial and effective hearing may be paid as refresher fees. | Rs.4500/- |
2. Certificate of fitness (for each application) | Rs.1500/- |
3. For Civil Miscellaneous Application | Rs. 1500/- per case |
4. For Civil or Criminal revision Petition | Rs. 2100/- per case |
5. For drafting pleadings, written statements in suits, counter affidavits/returns/answers pleading to the writ petition, grounds of appeal, etc. application for leave to appeal to Supreme Court; If substantially identical affidavits, written statements etc. are drafted in connected cases, only one drafting fee will be payable in the main case and no separate drafting fee will be payable in connected cases. | Rs. 1500/- per case |
With this kind of fee, how do you expect the counsels to be motivated and work hard on a case to argue effectively? So, as stated in The Cob(Web), they focus on number rather than quality!
A retired Revenue Board Member who is now a Senior Counsel told DDT that he gets about Rs. 28,000/- per case on an average!
Maybe the Commissioners who passed the orders/authorised the appeals should be made to argue the cases in the Tribunals and High Courts and their performance monitored. Perhaps the volume of litigation will come down.