The Jalpaiguri district court. Picture by Biplab Basak

Siliguri/Jalpaiguri, May 19: The Jalpaiguri district magistrate has decided to revoke the appointment of two lawyers as government pleader and public prosecutor after it emerged that she had no powers to appoint them.

The lawyers were given the posts following the resignation of the GP and the PP who had been appointed by the previous Left Front government.

The flaw in the order was pointed out by advocates loyal to the Trinamul Congress and the Congress.

“After the Assembly poll results were out, the GPs and PPs serving in different courts across the state had started putting in their papers. This had created an impasse in the judicial system where the government was left without anybody to represent it in courts,” Tapan Sarkar, the secretary of the Jalpaiguri district committee of the West Bengal Trinamul Congress Legal Cell, said today.

Sarkar said the legal remembrancer-in-charge of the state, who appoints lawyers to these posts, issued a letter to all district magistrates on May 17, instructing them to ask the GPs and the PPs to continue in their posts till suitable persons were appointed.

“When the GP and PP in Jalpaiguri tendered their resignations, the district magistrate (Vandana Yadav), instead of complying with the order (of the remembrancer), appointed two other lawyers to the posts. When the issue came to our notice, we pointed out the flaw to her and also intimated the legal remembrancer,” said Sarkar.

The West Bengal Lawyers’ Association, which is allegiant to the Congress, also raised the same charge against Yadav.

“Only the state government, through the legal remembrancer-in-charge, has the authority to appoint PPs and GPs. The order issued by the district magistrate is void and needs to be rescinded,” said Dipankar Ghosh, the convener of the Jalpaiguri district committee of the association.

The GP and the PP in Jalpaiguri quit the posts on May 16 and a letter was sent to them the next day by the legal remembrancer-in-charge, B.K. Srivastava, saying their resignations had been accepted by the governor but they were requested to hold the posts till new appointments were made.

DM Yadav admitted that her order was null and void and the appointments would be quashed later in the day.

“I had appointed the two lawyers to the posts unaware of the letter sent to me by the legal remembrancer. Now that the matter has come to my knowledge, I will rescind the order and ask the two persons, selected on May 17, not to join their new posts. Those who had quit their posts will continue till further correspondence from appropriate quarters.”