Section 21 in Conduct of the Government Litigation, Rules, 2000
21. Procedure for the defence of Writ Petition on behalf of State and its officers.
(1)(a)Whenever a notice or notice of motion in a Writ Petition is served on the Government Advocate concerned in the High Court on behalf of the State, he shall pm the same day s far as possible, and latest by next day forward copies of the notice accompanied by the copy of Rule i.e. order, the Court and connected Writ Petition, affidavit and other annexures to the administrative department concerned and to the Legal Remembrancer or the Joint Legal Remembrancer, Law Department.(b)He shall also apprise the administrative department concerned on any of the following points:-(i)Vires or legality of any legislative enactment or statutory rule has been challenged;(ii)Executive orders or executive actions of Government and/or its officers have been challenged and the matters is such which not only affects the rights of the rival parties, but also the interest of Government;(iii)Any taxation matter has been challenged;(iv)Any application for stay or any interim order has been made.(c)He shall, on finding that the Writ Petition falls under any one or more of the above points, put in appearance in the High Court on behalf of the State, at the admission stage without waiting for instructions from the administrative department or the Legal Remembrancer or the Joint Legal Remembrancers, Law Department. Where he finds that the question is between two private parties and Government's interest is not involved, he shall in the first instance obtain instructions from the administrative department concerned and then file appearance before the High Court for bringing the facts about Government's non-involvement in the case to the notice of the High Court.(d)In other Writ Petitions he shall file appearance in which the State is impleaded as a party, and obtain adjournment, if no instructions from the administrative department concerned are received by him in time.(2)Whenever a notice or notice of motion is served on the Government officer concerned, who is impleaded as party his official capacity, he shall without least delay, forward to the administrative department concerned, all the relevant case papers, including a copy of petition, a statement of facts, which are necessary for meeting the allegations in the Writ Petition should be opposed or not.(3)The administrative department concerned shall, on receipt of notice of notice of motion and its enclosures, make such enquiry into the facts of the case, as may be necessary and if the Rule in intended to be opposed, shall prepare or obtain parawise report on all the points raised in the Writ Petition and affidavit.(4)On receipt of or after preparing parawise replies the administrative department concerned shall forward the complete case papers, as far as possible, within two weeks from the date of receipt by it or in any case before the expiry of the date mentioned in the notice of motion to the Law Department concerned and also forward the copies of the same to the Legal Remembrancer or the Joint Legal Remembrancer, Law Department.(5)Swearing of counter affidavit:-(a)As soon as a case is filed against any Government Department, the concerned Department shall handover the case to such Officer who is well conversant with the facts and circumstances of the case.(b)The said Officer shall then prepare parawise comments and defence based facts from files and records and shall place the same before the Department Secretary who in turn shall entrust the same to the Officer concerned who has been entrusted or delegated with the duty of handling litigation of the Department.(c)Thereafter, the parawise comments duly countersigned by the Departmental Secretary shall be placed before the legal Remembrancer or Joint Legal Remembrancer.(d)The Legal Remembrancer or the Joint Legal Remembrancer shall scrutinize the facts stated by the Department for obtaining approval from the Competent Authority.(e)After all these formalities are complete, the same shall be sent to the Law Officer concerned to give final shape to the draft reply/written statement/affidavit etc. Once the draft is finalized the same shall be placed before the Advocate General for settlement.(f)Any information required by the Advocate General/Government Advocate concerned in the High Court in connection with the preparation of the counter affidavit shall be furnished by the administrative department concerned as early as possible.(g)The draft counter affidavit shall after finally settled by the Advocate General be sworn in by the Head of the department or by the competent officer authorized to do so by the Government.(h)On swearing the counter affidavit by the Head of the department or by the competent officer, the same shall be filed in the High Court.
