The delay in appointment of Deputy and Additional Advocate Generals on tenure basis owing to legal and administrative hitches in Himachal Pradesh has left the regular staff (cadre posts) over-worked.

The regular staff members has been asked to cancel ongoing vacation and handle the cases on vacation benches of State Administrative Tribunal and the High Court to meet this requirement.

While the previous Congress government had appointed over 35 Deputy and Additional Advocate Generals on tenure basis (co-terminus with government) at its own whims and fancies, the present BJP government is required to follow some rules to select people for important job in the wake of guidelines issued by the apex court, which had asked the states to frame rules sometime ago.

Sources said the previous state government had submitted an affidavit on a contempt petition in the High Court that rules are being framed for these appointments.

At present, the state government has three regular Deputy Advocate Generals, one Assistant Advocate General and one Law Officer. Out of three Deputy AGs one takes care of the cases in Administrative Tribunal and one of cases in High Court.

One Deputy AG is posted in Delhi. Three posts of Assistant AGs and one post of Deputy AG are vacant for long.

“The rules have been framed, but it will still take some more time to meet procedural formalities, before we go for appointments. Our regular staff is overworked as we had to cancel their vacation,” Advocate General, Himachal Pradesh, Ashok Sharma told The Statesman.

He said the appointments would made as per eligibility and the numbers would be need based.

“However, we are working on some legal options for the intervening period, so as to ease the work pressure,” the AG said.

The new rules, official sources said, may lay down eligibility in terms of experience and number of cases handled by an aspirant for the posts of Deputy AGs and Additional AGs.

It is pertinent to mention that in previous Congress government, the appointments of Deputy AGs and Additional AGs on tenure basis had snowballed into a controversy as the lawyers were handpicked without going into the length and quality of their experience and the cases handled.

Their numbers were the highest ever in any government in Himachal in the last four decades.