ANDAMAN: Hefty pay of A&N Pleader's assistant draws flak

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, on August 9, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/hefty-pay-of-an-pleaders-assistant-draws-flak/302470.html

CHENNAI: The legal fraternity in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is up in arms against the administration for appointing a Kolkata-based lawyer, Deep Chaim Kabir, son of the Chief Justice of India (CJI)-in waiting, Justice Altamas Kabir, as an ‘assistant’ to the Government Pleader (GP) with a hefty sum of Rs 30,000 per appearance in its cases.

With the Andaman administration turning a blind eye to the fraternity’s vociferous demand for removal of Kabir ever since the controversy broke out, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bar Association went on a protest on July 29, and abstained from attending the courts since then.
Irked over the administration’s attitude where it bypassed several senior advocates (from Kolkata and Port Blair) and appointed Kabir, who had just four years of experience, to assist the Government Pleader in the sensational CBSE paper leak case, the island’s bar association on July 29 unanimously decided to approach the Chief Secretary of the administration to seek Kabir’s removal as they deemed it as an unethical move.With the court boycott by lawyers across the archipelago continuing for more than 10 days now, progress of hundreds of cases, including the important case pertaining to the smuggling of explosives to the Island in ships, are badly affected.
Terming it as a bad precedence by the administration, Rakesh Pal Gobind, spokesperson for the Bar Association told Express that advocate Kabir’s appointment to assist the GP in government cases was unprecedented and an unethical move.While the local Bar was seeking the cancellation of Kabir appointment, the administration has come out strongly in the defence of Kabir. 
In a reply to the association, the administration emphasised that he was appointed solely to assist the GP in the sensitive CBSE question paper leak case.


“The public prosecutor has to appear not only in the Sessions Court, but also before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and the Circuit Bench of the High Court. Therefore, for speedy administration of justice, it was considered appropriate to appoint Kabir to provide requisite assistance to the PP,” a reply from the administration read.
According to rules, for appointment as Special Public Prosecutor, an advocate needs a minimum of 10 years practicing experience. But, there are no rules fixed to appoint an assistant to a Government Pleader, and using the ambiguity, Kabir might have been appointed to assist the GP, sources said.