Feature
SC reserves verdict on plea for guidelines on law officers’ appointment
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on the plea seeking to put in place a transparent and objective search and selection process for the appointment of law officers to represent government before the high courts and the apex court.
“We are looking for a transparent and objective selection process for the appointment of the government law officers to represent it before the courts,” said a bench of Justice T.S.Thakur and Justice Kurian Joseph, clarifying: “We are not for enforcing any uniform method but the process of selection becomes objective.”
The court also favoured “audit” of the work done by the each of the law officers so that government is accountable for their appointment before the elected representatives in the state assemblies.
“When you audit their work, then you may come to know that 10 law officers never appeared before the court, another 20 appeared only once and 50 were just enjoying and then issue may get raised in the assembly,” the court said.
The court’s stand assumes significance it was told that the CAG in its report has pointed to serious irregularities in the working of law officers of Haryana in six months between December 2009 and January 2012.
India’s official auditor said that in January 2012, Haryana had 179 law officers and 78 percent of them were without any work and there were 87 law officers who did no work for 20 working days in the month of January but were still paid. The total amount paid to these 179 law officers in January 2012 was Rs.6,948,786.
The court was told that at present Haryana had 36 law officers working in its legal cell in Delhi which includes 26 holding the post of additional advocate general, four of deputy advocate general and six of assistant advocate general. Besides this, Haryana has 147 law officers in the advocate general’s office in Chandigarh.
Driving home its point, the court said that if the state resources could not be given to private contractors in an arbitrary manner, similarly there has to be some yardstick for the appointment of law officers as they are paid from state exchequer.
It also made it clear that it was not going to interfere with the categories of the law officers, to be identified by their nomenclature, that the state governments may have or their numbers, experience or the amount to be paid to them.
However stressing “some mechanism, methodology and objectivity in the appointment of the law officers”, the court said that the government’s law officers appearing before the court must inspire the confidence of the people.
It also made it clear that that it was in no doubt that even after putting in place a transparent and objective selection process for the appointment of law officers, some questionable appointments would still be made.
“We know even after putting in place a selection process with parameters laid out, the ultimate outcome may be the same (appointments getting coloured by considerations other than the merit) as members of the selection committee are human but there would be some genuine appointments,” said Justice Thakur.
The court said that the people without political connections but clean and reasonably meritorious too should have an avenue of being considered and appointed as otherwise it results in a “heartburn”.
“If a person does not have a political clout he should not remain excluded from consideration for appointment as law officer,” the court said, while hearing of a plea by the Punjab government challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s September 2013 order refusing to interfere with its single judge’s October 21, 2011 order that services of Brijeshwar Singh Chahal as law officer not be terminated.
The single judge, by another order of October 18, 2012, had said the matter required a detailed hearing.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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