1 FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET No. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY NAGPUR BENCH AT NAGPUR First Appeal No. 715/2007 ( The State of Maharashtra & others VERSUS Pralhad Ghugaji Shende) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram, Court's or Judge's orders appearances, Court's orders of directions and Registrar's orders - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CORAM : Smt. Vasanti A. Naik, J. DATE : 18 th September, 2007. It has been witnessed by this Court for the past one year that though proper assistance has been rendered by the learned Assistant Government Pleaders in the land acquisition matters either filed by the State of Maharashtra or defended by the State of Maharashtra, the learned Assistant Government Pleaders are not receiving any professional fees in the land acquisition cases. It was conveyed to this Court on several occasions by the learned Assistant Government Pleaders that the issue of payment of professional fees to the learned Assistant Government Pleaders is pending with the State Government. It appears that till today, no decision is taken by the Government on the aforesaid issue. If legal assistance is provided by the learned Assistant Government Pleader or for that matter any counsel, it is expected that he/she should be paid professional fees for providing the same. The Secretary, Law & Judiciary Department of the State of Maharashtra should, therefore, peremptorily deal with the aforesaid issue 2 and take appropriate steps in the matter of payment of the professional fees to the learned Assistant Government Pleaders in land acquisition matters. As already stated hereinabove, the learned Assistant Government Pleaders have been rendering good assistance to the Court in land acquisition matters. The Assistant Government Pleaders cannot be blamed for lack of assistance, if the Government fails to provide them any fees for their job. For maintaining the standard of legal assistance by the pleaders engaged by Government, it would be extremely necessary to see that they are paid some professional fees. The Secretary, Law & Judiciary Department of the State of Maharashtra should, therefore, immediately look into the matter and should report to the Court on the steps taken, within a period of four weeks from today. Steno copy be supplied to the learned Assistant Government Pleader for taking immediate steps, to convey the aforesaid order to the Secretary, Law & Judiciary Department of State of Maharashtra. JUDGE APTE