DNA ( 30 July ) carried a
report with following headline :
“ BMC tracks counsels, to fire those
below par “
The civic body is using a software to keep track of its 60,000 court cases
According to an official, the counsels’
performance will be monitored through the number of adjourn to date
“ We have found that counsels kept running the case for years by getting
new dates and continued to charge for each appearance in court “ , said the
official
Look at what I found at :
The BMC spent over Rs.100 cr in last 13 years as payment
to lawyers, who represented the civic body in various court cases. Majority of
the cases pertained to illegal constructions and the highest paid lawyer was
senior counsel K K Sanghavi, who received Rs.19.13 cr as legal fees from the
BMC in last 13 years.
This was
revealed in a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by activist Anil Galgali.
The reply from
the corporation further showed that between 2001 to 2014, the BMC engaged 151
lawyers and paid them Rs.105.06 cr as legal fees. The top10 lawyers whom the
BMC paid the highest fees were Sanghvi, Anil Sakhre, who was paid Rs.10.58 cr,
G E Vahanvaty (Rs.4.9 cr), E P Bharucha (Rs.4.28 cr, S U Kamdar (Rs.3.65
cr), Ramesh Bhat Rs.2.63 cr), Pallav Sisodiya Rs.2.06 cr), J Rais (Rs.1.85 cr,
(B L Chabbria (Rs.1.8 cr) and (Subhash Vyas (Rs.1.8 cr). These top 10 lawyers were paid a total of around Rs.51.88
cr, which comes to 49.37% of the total expenses.
The law department of the BMC, however, informed him that it does
not have record about the success rate of the cases. “Till
now no such independent record is available with the department,” the law
department stated in the reply.
Now , there are 2 types of cases , viz:
TYPE A
·
Cases filed by others on BMC
-
Where BMC will save lawyer’s fees if “ No of hearing dates “ are reduced .
Call this a SAVING
TYPE B
·
Cases filed by BMC on others
-
Where winning that case would result in some “ Earnings “ for BMC . Call
this a EARNING
-
Hence , the lawyer’s fees should be decided based on SAVINGS ( in case of TYPE
A ) ,
Or EARNINGS
( in case of TYPE B ) – which accrue in the shortest possible time
Based on
statistics for the past 10 years , BMC should compute , a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION CURVE ( a BELL shaped curve
) , for the “ No of Hearing Dates “ and calculate
the STANDARD DEVIATION ( Sigma ) and
calculate ( + / - ) 3 SIGMA limits
That would tell
the BMC , “ Most likely Number of Hearing Dates “ for any given
case
Let us say , this figure comes out 20
And BMC already
knows in advance , “ Lawyer’s fees per appearance “ ( say, Rs 5000 )
So , estimating
exactly ( with a probability of 99 % ) , HOW MUCH this case will cost , is a no
brainer ! It would be Rs 100,000 ( for 20 hearings )
Now tell the
Counsel :
Sir , this is
the Upper Limit of the amount
that we will pay you ( Rs 100,000 ) for fighting this case
But , from 10th
“ date “ onwards , we will start deducting , Rs 5,000 per each
additional hearing , beyond 10th ( - a PENALTY ),
And ,
For each date less than 10 , we will pay
you a BONUS of Rs
5,000 !
And , we will DOUBLE the BONUS amount so arrived ,
if you WIN the
case !
Next witness a miracle !
All cases will start getting completed in 5 hearings ! May be in months , instead of in years !
I have a feeling that , overall , BMC
will save crores of rupees ( despite paying BONUSES to lawyers ) , since it
would save a huge amount of TIME that its officers are currently spending in
courts ( - and earning TA / DA ! )
After reading
this , do not be surprised if some Start Up ( could be : MeetUrPro / LawRato / Vakilsearch / IndiaFilings / Vahura
) , comes up with a Mobile App called , “ AdJourn “ , to enable BMC lawyers to
enter the adjourned date in the App which instantly and automatically , updates
the CASE STATUS on the BMC web site and simultaneously , on the web site of the concerned court !
Call
this , “ Transparency at
its Best “ ( - also to judge the performance of the JUDGE ! )
With more than 30 million cases
pending in Courts all over India ,”
AdJourn “ could change the very landscape of India’s Legal Management
System , if adopted by all the Courts !
This could be one more “ App for
Everything “ – which Shri Modi would love to launch !
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20 Aug 2017
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs