Cases in other courts apart from the High Court and CAT will be assigned by the Legal Remembrance-cum Director of Prosecution, Chandigarh Administration. It is for the first time that the power to assign cases to counsels has been handed over to a senior standing counsel. Till now, all the cases were assigned by the Legal Remembrance (LR). From now on, Advocate Anupam Gupta will not only assign the cases to counsels representing the UT Administration but will also monitor the performance of the counsels.

An order to this effect has been passed by the law secretary after being cleared by UT Administrator General S F Rodrigues (Retd).

Sources said the decision has been taken by the UT Administrator as it was keen to re-organise the entire arrangement of legal work so that the interests of Administration in the high court are represented with complete integrity and objectivity.

Gupta said: “It shall be my endeavour to build up a team of lawyers of competence, integrity and commitment. I see the additional responsibility entrusted to me in this light.” Prior to 2005, all the cases pertaining to Administration were assigned by respective head of departments to the counsels on the panel of the concerned institute. The procedure was centralised by the UT Administration after 2005 thereby giving the powers to assign cases to LR.

It might be recalled that two days after Gupta had participated actively in the agitation against an order passed by Justice Uma Nath Singh, where he had declared that a lawyer was “lunatic” and had directed the CBI to send him to a mental asylum. Following which, the Administration had asked him to step down from the post. Reacting to the call, Gupta had immediately submitted his resignation.

Gupta had also entered into a war of words with Chief Justice Vijender Kumar Jain in connection of the ongoing Dera Sacha Sauda petition. Gupta had requested the high court not to intervene in the issue.