Goa Governor B.V.Wanchoo should in public interest immediately sack Goa’s very controversial and flamboyant Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni who by his various acts of omission and commission has lost all moral authority to continue on the high Constitutional post as Advocate General.
Atmaram Nadkarni’s continuance as counsel for several mining companies including Sesa Goa is highly objectionable. It is preventing him from giving opinion and discharging his functions as Advocate General without being biased in favour of the mining lobby. An Advocate General should never be appearing directly or indirectly in cases against the Government but Advocates operating from Atmaram Nadkarni’s office are in collusion blatantly and high-handedly appearing against the Government. Besides, the records of the High Court and the lower Courts, bear testimony to this utter chicanery of the Advocate General and his so-called former juniors. In certain cases, while his juniors are “briefed” and appearing for statutory bodies, when it suits them, Atmaram Nadkarni appears for these very bodies as Senior Counsel and conveniently chooses to appear for the private parties, surely, depending upon the stakes and fees. There also needs to be a probe into the huge disproportionate assets acquired by Atmaram Nadkarni and all the other glaring irregularities in the office of the Advocate General. The highly exorbitant fees currently being paid to Advocate General Atmaram is an unjustified criminal waste of public funds. It is very appalling that despite Goa being the smallest State it was very high-handedly hosting the highest paid Advocate General who was being paid upto Rs eight lakhs a month besides Rs 75,000 per day on every visit to Delhi. We need to know as to why the Advocate General of Goa should be paid anything more than his counterpart in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. The Goa Government should justify why the Advocate General is being paid over five times more than the President of India. As the First Law officer of the State Atmaram Nadkarni should have maintained very high levels of ethics and conduct in all his acts and deeds. It is however very dismaying that Atmaram Nadkarni took the very high constitutional post to a very new low by getting members of the public to foot the bill of his lavish 50th birthday held on November 23, 2013 at the five starred Taj Fort Aguada in Sinquerim. Greed has no limits. And ironically Atmaram Nadkarni has the blessings of Manohar Parrikar in all this despite that vow of Zero tolerance to Corruption. Aires Rodrigues T1 - B30, Ribandar Retreat Ribandar - Goa - 403006 Mobile: 9822684372
