By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Additional Advocate General Rameeza Hakeem has resigned from her post, sources said here.
The resignation of Hakeem, who is the wife of Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda, comes at a time when a section of senior Congress leaders, including Partap Singh Bajwa, have accused the AG’s office of not properly dealing with the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases.
Hakeem, who is among the state’s senior-most law officers, has stated in her resignation that she wants to “refocus her attention and efforts” on her private practice and professional career.
She sent her resignation to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on June 1 with a request that “it be accepted this time”, the sources said.
Hakeem had tendered her resignation back in August 2020 as well, but Singh had refused to accept it.
The resignation has been accepted, the sources added.
Hakeem was appointed Punjab’s additional advocate general in 2017.
The Punjab AG and the legal team that defended the state’s probe in the 2015 Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases in the Punjab and Haryana High Court have come under severe criticism after the court quashed the SIT and its investigation.
Responding to Hakeem’s resignation, Bajwa said, “The advocate general’s wife resigned, but it would have been better if the AG had tendered resignation.”
Earlier, the senior Congress leader had said that the recent verdict of the high court was a “monumental failure of the advocate general and his office”.
The high court has ordered a new SIT to probe the cases.
A section of the Congress leaders has been targeting their own government over alleged delays in delivering justice in the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent firing incident in 2015.
Bajwa had earlier also alleged that Nanda repeatedly “shirked” his duty, especially with regards to the sacrilege cases.
Meanwhile, the AG shot off a letter to Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on June 14 over “arbitrary abolishment of posts in the office of the Advocate General”, which he said would “cripple” its functioning.
“I write to inform you of a serious matter which affects the functioning and administration of the office of the Advocate General, Punjab,” Nanda wrote.
He mentioned in his letter that the Home department, in a memo issued in February this year, has “ffectively abolished 23 posts in my office without so much the courtesy of an intimation or consultation with me”.
“Some of these relate to the posts of librarian and stenos, that is posts which are critical for the functioning of a lawyer’s office,” Nanda wrote.
He mentioned that case work was increasing day by day given the working of the AG’s office.
“Further, the next six months are crucial as being the end of the term, the government is likely to be faced with a critical litigation which will require this office to work at its best.
At a time like this, to try and cripple my office with the abolishing of posts, betrays an arbitrary approach if not, a total non-application of mind by the ACS (Additional Chief Secretary), Home.
“I also find it inexcusable that the ACS Home has without so much as the courtesy of a discussion with me, let alone my approval, done this which amounts to a clear interference in the functioning of my office,” he wrote.
