PANJIM: The inquiry into the professional misconduct by Advocate General of Goa Mr. Subodh Kantak remains pending for over five months as the Law Secretary and Special Secretary Home differ as to who should conduct the inquiry against the Advocate General.
This has been revealed in the file notings obtained by Adv. Aires Rodrigues under the Right to Information Act.
The Bombay High Court had written to the Chief Secretary of Goa on Oct 29th last year regarding the professional misconduct by Advocate General Subodh Kantak for having appeared before the High Court for a private party in a case against the Goa Government.
Chief Secretary Mr. Sanjay Srivastava on 30th November directed Law Secretary Mr. Pramod Kamat and Special Secretary Home Mr. Rajeev Verma to examine the complaint of professional misconduct against Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak and submit a report by 2nd December.
Law Secretary in his note dated 1st December strangely submitted that the Advocate General is the Constitutional Head of the State. The Law Secretary further stated that as the Advocate General was higher thanthe Law Secretary by rank it would not be proper for him to submit a report on the Advocate General. The Law Secretary in his note further submitted that the report on the complaint against the Advocate General be exclusively prepared by Special Secretary Home or by any other person deemed fit by the Chief Secretary.
The Special Secretary Home Mr. Rajiv Verma however in his noting while firmly disagreeing with the Law Secretary stated that as the matter was pertaining to the professional misconduct by the Advocate General it should be dealt with by the Law Department itself as it was also dealing with the appointment of Advocate General.
The file notings also reveal that the file has over the last five months been shuttling between the offices of the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, Law Secretary and Special Secretary Home with no decision on the issue.
Reacting to the RTI information obtained by him, Adv. Aires Rodrigues has today stated that it was very evident that there was a planned strategy by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to shield the misdeeds of Advocate General Subodh Kantak.
Adv. Rodrigues has also questioned as to how Law Secretary Mr. Pramod Kamat could have wrongly opined that the Advocate General was the Constitutional Head of the State. “It was earlier presumed that only the Advocate General was ignorant on the basics of law,” stated Adv. Rodrigues
It may be noted that Mr. Pramod Kamat is an Additional Sessions Judge on deputation to the Goa Government as Law Secretary.
It may be recalled that a complaint was sent by Adv. Aires Rodrigues to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court that Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak had in rank conflict of interest appeared for a private contractor in a matter before the Bombay High Court at Goa where the State of Goa was also a party. The attention of the Bombay High Court Chief Justice was drawn that in Writ petition 365/2010 before the High Court at Goa filed by Mr. Govind Nagvenkar where the State of Goa was also a party, that Advocate General Mr. Subodh Kantak had appeared for one of the private contractors Primeslots Events Private Ltd.
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