Delhi government brings new faces to its legal team

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party government has gone in for a major overhaul of its legal team, bringing in fresh faces following a transparent procedure of public advertisement, applications and interviews.

For long the sole preserve of the chief minister, the appointment for the top government lawyer's post was conducted this time through advertisements in newspaper and websites.

Advocate Raman Duggal has been named as the new standing counsel for civil matters by the Delhi government. Duggal will be assisted by a team of eight additional standing counsel. From this week, they will be the face of the government in the high court and other judicial forums. After its thumping victory in assembly elections, the AAP government had preferred continuity for the first few months and carried on with lawyers appointed by Sheila Dikshit during her tenure as CM.

"The posts were filled only when the candidates met a set of fixed criteria, merit being the most important. Past experience, reputation enjoyed in the bar and before the bench, and strong anti-corruption credentials were other key factors. A panel of three conducted an eight hour interview process to select the candidates for the post of standing counsel before the CM cleared the name," a source in the law department said.

A notification issued by the law e department said that lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung has appointed Duggal and others. Advocates Sanjoy Ghose, Gautam Narayan, Devesh Singh, Satyakam, Peeyoosh Kalra, Anuj Aggarwal, Naushad Ahmed Khan and Santosh Kumar Tripathi have been appointed as additional standing counsel.

The names, as per the notification, were cleared by the LG on May 1 after his meeting with law minister Jitender Singh Tomar, the chief secretary and the home secretary.

Advertisements seeking names for empanelment as government lawyers were issued on March 24 and the candidates had time till April 7 to apply. As per sources more than 800 interested lawyers applied for the posts which were screened. Later, a much shorter list was prepared for interview by the selection committee.

Duggal, who has represented the municipal corporation earlier, was chosen due to his clean image, sources said.