The Mamata Banerjee government has appointed eight eminent lawyers as special government pleaders (SGPs) and a ninth as a special public prosecutor (SPP) in an apparent bid to monitor legal matters of Nabanna properly, particularly those pending before Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court.
Advocates Indranil Ray, Saurav Sen, Debajyoti Datta, Sudip Deb, Partha Pratim Ray, Kaushik Dey, Aniruddha Chatterjee and Biswarup Bhattacharya were appointed as SGPs, and Sabyasachi Banerjee as the SPP.
The SGPs will hold the brief of civil cases filed against the government along with government pleader Anirban Ray.
SPP Sabyasachi Banerjee will handle criminal cases along with the public prosecutor Debasish Ray.
The appointments assume significance as they came after Mamata set up a committee headed by state chief secretary Manoj Pant to better monitor the state government’s legal matters.
“While setting up the committee last week, the chief minister had expressed her displeasure over the allegedly lackadaisical approach of different departments in monitoring court cases filed against the government,” said an official.
“She made it clear that she believed that the stand of the state government was not being presented in the courts properly, which is why the state government wasn’t getting favourable rulings,” the official added. “Bringing in more legal experts and forming the committee are steps through which the government was trying to ensure that all cases are monitored properly,” he added.
Legal experts in Calcutta High Court said that since more and more cases were being filed challenging various state government decisions, it had to strengthen its legal force.
The Mamata government has also been facing uncomfortable questions in courts over rapes, custodial deaths and murders, said sources.
“In a bid to tackle the situation, the state has decided to appoint the SGPs and the SPP. The decision to appoint so many SGPs is unprecedented,” a veteran lawyer of Calcutta High Court said.