Adarsh: Government lawyer gets Rs 1.15 lakh a hearing

MUMBAI: The state government has spent Rs 4.5 crore till date on the judicial commission probing the Adarsh scam. Even then, the case is yet to get off the ground with the commission getting repeated extensions to complete its assignment. At the same time, the CBI which was directed to investigate the matter on January 2, 2011, hasn't even filed charges against nine key accused.
While the commission was set up on January 8, 2011, it submitted its report on April 13, 2012, but sought and got another three-month extension up to September 30 this year.
A bulk of the jaw-dropping expense comprises salaries of the two members of the judicial commission and fees paid to senior counsel Anil Sakhare and his two assistants.
A senior official said the commission has worked for 350 days from its inception to May 31, 2012, V B Nighot and R H Vasudeve. Sakhare's team has been hired to represent the departments of general administration (GAD), urban development (UDD), revenue, forests and environment before the commission. According to reports, Sakhare is paid Rs 1.15 lakh for every effective hearing, Rs 55,000 per non-effecting hearing and conference fees of Rs 7,500 per hour. Nighot and Vasudev are each paid Rs 25,000 per appearance. So far, the urban development department has paid him Rs 63.41 lakh, while the payment status of the other departments is not available.
What is surprising is the state government's reluctance to provide specific information on the payments made to its counsel. On January 5 this year, RTI activist Vikrant Joshi sought information from GAD about the names of the advocates representing the state government before the commission, their terms and conditions, particularly remuneration-and the payment made. The public information officer of GAD S H Umranikar informed him that since the data sought pertained to other departments, the application under the RTI had been forwarded to them.
The pass-the-buck continued with UDD telling Joshi that the original application had been redirected to GAD. As a result he is still waiting to get information six months after he made his application.
Significantly, the commission had long back provided information to him about the salaries and perks of Justice J A Patil, chairman, and P Subramaniam, member, Deepan Merchant, counsel and his junior Bharat Jhaveri, and expenditure on the commission's staff.
"Nearly Rs 4.5 crore has been spent on the commission and since its term has been extended to September 30, another Rs one crore will have to be provided for it,'' said a senior official.