Hyderabad: Former minister and Congress leader Mr Marri Shasidhar Reddy has moved the Hyderabad High Court questioning the non-appointment of Advocate General by the Telangana government since March 26, 2018 as unconstitutional and it ultra vires Article 165 and 177 of the Constitution of India.
Referring the resignation of Mr D Prakash Reddy for the post of Advocate General on March 26 Mr Shasidhar Reddy in his petition contended that once there is no Advocate General, there cannot be his team which was recommended by him, unless the Government issues a special GO, but since the resignation of the AG, all the law officers who were appointed with the recommendation of the then AG are continuing in the posts and appearing for the matters of the state government.
While stating that the post of the AG is a constitutional post , he contended that when a constitutional post is required to be filled up by a person having the qualification specified therefore, he would alone perform the duties and functions, be it constitutional or statutory, attached to the said office. He told the court that the Constitution does not envisage that such functions be performed by more than one person and if more than one person is appointed to discharge the constitutional functions as also the statutory functions, different Advocate Generals may act differently resulting in a chaos.
He submitted that the if the law officers working in High Court are allowed to perform the duties of the AG. He submitted that the office of the Advocate General is a public office and the AG not only has a right to address the Houses of Legislature but also is required to perform other statutory functions in terms of Section 302 of Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Section 23 of the Advocates Act.
He urged the court to direct the Governor and the state government to appoint an Advocate General to the Telangana in accordance of Article 165 of the Constitution. It mat also mentioned here that Mr. M. Sateesh Kumar a practicing advocate of the city had already moved a PIL seeking direction to appoint the AG for the Telangana.
