Last Updated on August 24, 2021 at 3:49 pm
Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered that the Department of Law should be consulted from now on before filing replies in courts, tribunals, forums among others.
“With a view to ensure submission of timely, well-considered and uniform stand/replies of the Government Departments/HoDs/Organizations/ Bodies/Societies before respective adjudicating forums, there is an imminent requirement to consult the Department of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs for opinion and vetting of the draft replies/objections before filing the same in the Courts/Forums” a circular read.
The circular further read that cases involving more than one department, the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs shall finalize a consolidated reply and return the duly vetted consolidated reply/objections to one of the departments, to be decided by it, which shall file the timely reply on behalf of all the departments, unless there are specific directions from the Court/Forum for filing of separate replies by each department, in which case also, the replies must be vetted through Law Department to ensure coherence and consistencies with each other.
The Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs shall put in place a centralized mechanism within the department for vetting the draft replies/stand of the Government through a single window system to avert any delay in filing the response/stand.
Accordingly, all the Administrative Departments/HoDs/ Government Organizations/Statutory Bodies/Corporations etc. shall take note of the above instructions and follow the same in letter and spirit.
