The state government seems to have woken up now to sit down and to place all its policies, GOs and Acts, in line with the legal framework.
The repeated defeat of the government in the past 20 months seems to have taught a fitting lesson which made the government sit down and do some homework.
From now on, all government orders, policy documents and Bills to be made are to be cleared by the Advocate General, before they are made public.
Any department, whichever is preparing a GO or policy document or Bill, will now have to sit with the law department for early scrutiny.
Once the law department clears, the same would be sent to the office of the Advocate General for further scrutiny.
The State government had issued a GO (MS No. 11) on Tuesday, directing all officials and departments to follow this procedure.
The government finally realised that its policies “could be subject matter of litigation,” where the government would have to justify its policies “in the court of law.”
The Advocate General’s clearance is now made a compulsory “to ensure that the policies of the government are in consonance with due process and the requirements of law.”
There is a chain of cases in the last 20 months, where the government has lost its case in the courts.
The State government, after the series of setbacks in the courts realised that, “The decision-making process involves consultations within the various departments of the government, including examining the legality of the processes involved as well as smooth and unhindered implementation of the policy.”
