Government spent Rs 529 million in lawyers' fees last fiscal year

The union government’s expenditure on litigation fees for lawyers representing the centre in the last fiscal year stood at Rs 529 million, Ministry of Law and Justice’s data presented in the Lok Sabha showed.

This expenditure has seen a marginal downward trend in the last three financial years as per the data presented by the law ministry.

In response to a Lok Sabha question, the law ministry on August 5 said that the government spent over Rs 644 million on legal fees for lawyers in 2019-20. During the pandemic years, the expenditure came down marginally with the government shelling out over Rs 541 million in 2020-21 and over Rs 529 million in 2021-22.

The current financial year has already clocked over Rs 144 million in expenses towards legal fees as on August 2, the law minister’s answer showed.

The ministry also furnished details of the bills raised by the country’s top two law officers – Attorney General for India (AG) and Solicitor General of India (SG) – for the period starting from 2018 in response to a separate question put before the ministry.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju’s answer showed that AG KK Venugopal has raised bills amounting to nearly Rs 16.68 million of which Rs 15.99 million stands paid.

As for SG Tushar Mehta, bills coming up to almost Rs 86.09 million during the period have been raised of which a payment of Rs 76.74 million has been made by the government. It is to be noted that Mehta served as the Additional Solicitor General before being designated as the SG in October 2018.

While addressing the question of the government’s expense on litigation fees, the ministry highlighted the instructions issued by it which determine the fees payable for the various classes of counsel representing the government.

As per these instructions issued by the Department of Legal Affairs in 2015, fees payable for a panel counsel appearing in the Supreme Court range between Rs 4,500 and Rs 13,500 per appearance based on the type of case. Drafting work draws Rs 3,000 per case for the panel counsel.

Assistant Solicitor Generals of various high courts, standing counsel and senior standing counsel of central government, and senior panel lawyers are retained by the government at a monthly fee of Rs 9,000 in addition to per appearance charge of Rs 3,000 for applications and Rs 9,000 for suits, writ petitions, and appeals.

The various memoranda and instructions issued by the department of legal affairs lay down the fees and allowances to be paid by the government to the various classes of counsel that represent the government at different fora for all kinds of dispute resolution.

Rijiju’s response to Vishnu Dayal Ram also said that there was no consideration being made to amend the existing criteria for fees and representation by counsel or to create an integrated legal cell for all ministries and departments.