When the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy engaged the services of senior legal counsel and former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi to argue the case of the state government in the high court on the capital issue, it led to a lot of criticism from the Telugu Desam Party leaders, led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
For, the government has agreed to pay Rs 5 crore as fees to Mukul Rohatgi to argue its case in the state high court and released an amount of Rs 1 crore to him as an advance to take up the case. A government order (GO Ms No. 1) was issued by the state planning department on Wednesday.
The TDP leaders criticised the government for spending Rs 5 crore from public exchequer to fight against the “poor” farmers of Amaravati, who are agitating to save Amaravati for which they had “sacrificed” their lands.
But how “poor” are these farmers waging a legal battle in the high court?
Well, they have also engaged a senior legal expert Ashok Bhan to argue their case. And you know, how much this lawyer is charging from these “poor” farmers? Just Rs 1.15 crore for only three days!
According to the copy of the bill raised by Ashok Bhan, he would charge fee of whopping Rs 22 lakh per day per matter for each appearance.
On January 20, Ashok Bhan appeared for one matter and charged a fee of Rs 22 lakh. In the next two days, he appeared for two matters every day and therefore charged Rs 44 lakh each.
So, the total appearance fee for Ashok Bhan for three days was Rs 1.10 crore. Besides, he also charged a fee of Rs 2.5 lakh each for holding conference his associate advocates twice – that came to Rs 5 lakh. So, in all, he was paid Rs 1.15 crore for three days.
One can imagine how much burden these “poor” farmers have to bear if they engage lawyers like Ashok Bhan for arguing the case in the high court which may take its own time for hearing the case!
