Poor pay leaves Lokayukta sans spl public prosecutor

Gets Rs 10,000 a month, plus Rs 6,000 for effective hearing

It is a post and responsibility many advocates would like to take up, but the salary being offered for the post - Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) of Lokayukta - is driving them away.

A ‘grand’ salary of Rs 10,000 a month and Rs 150 per case for effective hearing, with a maximum of Rs 6,000, is hardly reassuring for the lawyers who would like to take up the post.

It has been nearly three weeks since advocate Umakanthan resigned from this post. Since then, neither the Lokayukta police nor the Upa Lokayukta’s office has submitted any choice for the post.

A large stumbling block to this process is the ridiculously low salary. The SPP handles all the cases tried under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the designated Special Lokayukta Court. Burdened with more than 350 cases, the Bangalore Urban division constitutes 40 per cent of the total cases tried in the State.

In recent days, several high- profile cases pertaining to ministers, ex-ministers, MLAs and other prominent persons have all been making their way to the Lokayukta City Court. The Lokayukta police are keen on engaging the services of a competent advocate. But the competent advocates, when contacted, plainly refused the job because of the low salary.

“The salary expected is at least Rs 30,000. Though they concede that the post will help advance their careers, they simply refuse to accept it, saying they have families to take care of. They even refuse to send the resumes,” a source in the Lokayukta police said.

In addition to the Rs 10,000 salary, the SPPs are paid Rs 150 per case for effective hearing (evidence, main arguments etc), with a maximum of Rs 6,000 for an upper limit of 40 cases. Something ‘not enough to even dry clean our coat,’ an advocate commented.

The demand for increase in the salary has been a long pending and long promised one.

“When the advocates accepted this post, they were promised higher remuneration. But that has not materialised. When there is a heavy case load, it is not even possible to continue private practice. It is very difficult to sustain on the salary being paid,” a government advocate said.

While recommendations were made to increase the pay to be on a par with salary being paid to the CBI counsel (Rs 60,000 per month), any increase, despite reminders from the Lokayukta office, is presently on hold. The file, according to Secretary to the Department of Home, Jaamdar S M, has been forwarded to the State Pay Commission.

“There is definitely a ground for increasing the salary, but these recommendations have to come from the Pay Commission and not from us,” he said.

As of now, the Registrar of the Lokayukta who sends the recommendations for the appointment to the post has not chosen anyone.

“Yes we will be engaging their services on the same salary. We might choose someone in a week’s time,” Registrar B Yoginath said.