The Tamil Nadu government’s Public Department has fixed the duties and responsibilities of liaison officers of all State Government Departments regarding the respective Department’s court cases.
According to a communication in this regard, the Public Department has scheduled two shifts – from 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. when the liaison officers would be deputed to the office of the State Government Pleader.
“They are required to report to the State Government Pleader and their attendance will be maintained by the State Government Pleader Office,” the communication said. In March this year, the Public Department wanted each of the Departments to appoint two liaison officers to deal with court cases.
The Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association (TANSA) opposed the decision. It said officials in various Departments have been following up on court cases. TANSA president G. Venkatesan contended it cannot be accepted that officials spend their day in the court when they have daily tasks to complete in office.
Criticising that the maintaining of an attendance in the office of the Government Pleader was nothing but misuse of authority, Mr. Venkatesan said the timings would not match, as the advocates would be in the court during these hours.
Pointing out that the business hours and the working days of the government Departments and the courts were different, he recalled the TANSA’s earlier representations underlining the challenges being faced by the government officials when dealing with court cases.
The TANSA president claimed the decision to fix two shifts for officials to report in the GP’s office has been made without proper understanding of the how the system functions. It would only affect the relationship between the government and its employees, he felt.
