New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a direction to notify the list of advocates and panel lawyers to represent the Delhi government in criminal matters before the Delhi High Court.

The plea said the list of standing counsel, additional standing counsel, additional public prosecutor, and panel counsel, selected by the Delhi government and approved by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) for representing the government in criminal matters before the high court, be notified.

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Advocate Amit Sahni, who has filed the petition, said he is amongst the selected candidates to represent the Delhi government as an additional public prosecutor before the high court in criminal matters.

The petitioner said the Delhi government had formed a selection committee, which interviewed the candidates for the post of standing counsel, additional standing counsel, additional public prosecutor, and panel counsel (both civil and criminal matters).

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It said names of the selected candidates were then forwarded by the Delhi government to the LG, who approved the list as shortlisted by the Delhi government, and the list of counsel to handle civil matters was thereafter notified.

The plea alleged that the petitioner has come to know that the high court has been conducting a “de-novo” selection procedure by calling various persons for interviews.

“The ‘de-novo' selection by way of conducting ‘interview' is unheard of when the names were cleared by the state government and approved by the Lieutenant Governor,” it said.

Last month, Sahni had written a letter to Chief Justice of India N V Ramana alleging that the Delhi High Court has been conducting a “de-novo” selection procedure by calling various persons for the interview to empanel advocates as panel counsel to represent the Delhi government

In his plea filed in the apex court, the advocate said he had made a representation dated April 19, 2022, requesting that recommendations of the selection committee of the Delhi government and approved by the LG on March 4, 2022, may kindly be given effect to in terms of section 24(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the process of “de-novo” interview of candidates be recalled to avoid the conflict of powers between the judiciary and the executive and also in the larger public interest.

The plea said the petitioner and others, who were selected as additional public prosecutors by the Delhi government and approved by the LG, had appeared before the screening/selection committee constituted by the high court on April 29.

It said out of the earlier strength of 35 additional public prosecutors, at present, only 21 are available and it has increased the workload amongst them.

The plea said that intervention is required to “avoid” unnecessary conflict between the judiciary and the executive.

The advocate said it is a well-settled principle that all the organs of the state, including the judiciary, have to respect the ‘Laxman Rekha' and cannot transgress into the domain of the executive.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)