BJP pitches to form govt in U'khand

March 22, 2016

New Delhi/ Dehradun, Mar 22: The BJP on Monday pitched itself to form a government in Uttarakhand with nine Congress rebel MLAs switching sides to unsettle Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

The Congress, too, stepped up its game by expelling Saket Bahuguna, the son of the rebel group leader and former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, and approached President Pranab Mukherjee with a plea to rein in the BJP.

A BJP delegation led by general-secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also met the President on Monday evening with a request to direct the governor to dismiss the Congress government in Uttarakhand, as party leaders claimed that the Rawat regime seized to exist since it failed to get the Budget passed.

However, contrary to earlier plans, the Congress rebels did not accompany the BJP delegation to meet the President. They demanded advancing the trust vote to Tuesday, as against the March 28 date set by the Governor for Rawat to prove his majority.

“The nine Congress rebels will meet the President separately. This is a BJP delegation,” Vijayvargiya, who led a dramatic march to the Rashtrapati Bhawan said.

Questioning the role of Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, the BJP leaders said how could he announce passage of the “Finance Bill” through a voice vote after disallowing their request for a division of votes.

Meanwhile, the Congress has taken its MLAs and their supporters to a resort near the Jim Corbett National Park in a bid to prevent attempts to lure them.

The rebel group, camping in a luxury hotel in Gurgaon, too, has been shifted to an undisclosed location.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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