Kerala Govt To Pay ₹ 15.5 Lakhs To Kapil Sibal For Single Appearance Before Supreme Court

The Kerala Government has issued an order a few days back sanctioning an amount of Rs. 15.5 Lakhs to Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for one appearance on its behalf before the Supreme Court on October 10.

As per the government order, the Advocate General of the state has been authorized to draw the said amount for payment to Sibal.

On October 10, Kapil Sibal appeared for the State that got itself impleaded in the Transfer Petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate seeking transfer of the trial of the case related to Gold Smuggling from Kerala to Bengaluru to oppose the same.

"IA No.149431 of 2022 filed by the State of Kerala seeking impleadment of the state is allowed", the Court said in its order while granting liberty to the state to file its affidavit in response by October 14. On that day Sibal was assisted by Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh and AOR C. K. Sasi, among others.

Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta who usually appears for the state before the Apex Court is appearing for the 4th Respondent, M. Sivasankar, Principal Secretary of Sports and Youth Affairs, an accused in the case.  

The matter was thereafter listed on October 21, when also both the Senior Advocates appeared for the state and the matter was adjourned to November 3 at the request of the Enforcement Directorate for filing a reply. 

The government order of October 19, sanctioning the amount says that the same is issued by invoking the second proviso to Rule 42 (1) of the Kerala Government Law Officers (Appointment and Conditions of Service) and Conduct of Cases rules, 1978.     

The government's decision to pay the said amount for opposing the transfer of the trial has been widely reported in media in the state.

The Enforcement Directorate had made serious allegations in its petition seeking the transfer of the trial of the gold smuggling case from Kerala to Karnataka. "The complainant department and their officers firmly believe and has reasons to believe from the conduct and manner of things happened so far that the state machinery, the politicians behind the ruling party and the accused are in many ways jointly and severally trying to thwart the investigation and the proceedings of justice system by one way of the other", the Petition filed by ED said.