GOA NEEDS A GOOD ADVOCATE GENERAL, NOT A FIXING GENERAL By Adv. Aires Rodrigues, Ribandar

An Advocate General should be giving the government sound legal and not manipulated advice. On the incompetence of Advocate General Subodh Kantak I would challenge him to a public debate. “Setting” and “fixing” should never be on an Advocate General’s agenda. The legal circus in the cases involving the River Princess, Casinos, SEZ’s or High Security number plates says it all.

AG Subodh K

What is also a matter of great concern is that Mr. Subodh Kantak has been paid over five crores over the last five years which is more than what the Governor, Chief Minister, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and even the President of India are paid.

Mr. Kantak is India’s highest paid Advocate General. He was earlier being paid around 10 to 14 lakhs a month and is now paid to a maximum of 5 lakhs a month while the Advocate Generals of Maharastra, Karnataka and Gujarat on the average are never paid more that Rs 50, 000 a month.

Other Advocate Generals appear in only constitutional and important matters but Mr. Subodh Kantak appears in all sorts of matters just because he gets Rs 8000/- every time he stands up in the High Court.

Mr. Subodh Kantak will always be remembered for the Saleli case in which he appeared in the High Court on 27th January 2006 in the bail applications of 102 accused and was paid 102 times Rs 8000 i.e. Rs eight lakhs sixteen thousand. It was a common argument for the whole batch of bail applications and he should have claimed only Rs 8000/- even though he lost that case.