SC rejects UP govt plea on lawyers’ contracts

“Total non-application of mind and the order being supported by no reason whatsoever would render the order passed as arbitrary. Arbitrariness shall vitiate the administrative order,” Justices Swatanter Kumar and Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya said while upholding the decisions of the High Court.

“The arbitrary act of the state cannot be excluded from the ambit of judicial review merely on the ground that it is a contractual matter,” Justice Kumar, writing the verdict for the bench, said.

The UP government, in as many as 18 appeals, had assailed various judgments of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, which had set aside its decisions not to renew the contracts of government lawyers after expiry of their terms.

“The order (of UP) dated April 3, 2008, is even liable to be quashed on another ground, that it is a non-speaking order also suffering from the vice of non-application of mind. As already discussed, the government has taken an en-block decision, without recording any reason, not to renew the term of any of the government counsel. That itself shows that there is no application of mind,” the apex court said and rejected the appeals of the state government.

Declining to “interfere” with the High Court verdicts, it asked the state to consider and decide within three

... contd.