FUNCTIONS
 

A. HOW IT WORKS
In order to regulate speedy, effective and efficient system of work in the Department, all the works have been allotted into seven Desks:-


1. L.R’s (Legal Remembrancer’s) Desk
This desk exclusively deals with all court cases involving interest of the State Government right from the lowest grade of court to the highest. Engagement of lawyers, vetting of drafts prepared by the lawyers, examination of the proposals to file appeals, revisions including appeal against acquittal are the main functions of this desk. This apart, the fixation and review of the fees-structure of the government retained lawyers is also initiated from this desk.

2. L.A.(Legal Affairs) Desk
This desk handles all files relating to legal opinion received from all the departments, corporations and other public sector undertakings. Besides, recommendations of various commissions, committees and authorities are examined for formulating views and advising Government.

3. Leg (Legislative) Desk
All proposals for drafting of any Bill, Ordinance and vetting rules, notifications, regulations are handled by this desk. It monitors passage of every Bill and Ordinance including introduction, printing, proof reading, obtaining assent of the Governor and making reference to the Central Government for President’s assent.

4. P.A (Parliamentary Affairs) Desk
Being the Administrative Department of the Legislative Assembly, the Law (Parliamentary Affairs) Department deals with all matters including appointment of officers, creation of posts, summoning and proroguing the House, initiating business for consideration of the BAC and other related matters.

5. Establishment Desk
The desk looks after all matters relating to the High Court, State Judiciary, Tribunals, Commissions and legal agencies. Establishment of courts, creation of infrastructure, setting up of Tribunals and Commissions and appointment of Notaries are some of the important functions of this desk.

6. Accounts Desk
The budget of the State Judiciary, Legal Remembrancer’s establishment, payment of fees of the retained and panel lawyers are the main functions of this desk.

7. Library Desk
Law Department has large number of law books in two Libraries; one is in the department and another in the office of the Advocate General at Agartala. Proposals for purchasing law books for the department’s library, library of the Advocate General and other retained lawyers are processed by this desk. Updating and up

keeping the library are its main function. Central Acts, Rules and Ordinances are republished from this desk.

Internal Work System
Every desk contains 2 to 5 ministerial staff (Desk Person). One officer has been allotted one or more desks. He is called ‘Desk Officer’.
Duty Chart of each desk and its Desk Persons has been defined by Office Orders. Files from other departments seeking legal opinion, relating to court cases and other matters are received by this department. To ensure timely disposal of all such files and papers each officer of the department has been allotted specific number of departments. It is the duty of each desk to keep record of the files and papers allotted to it and put up before the officer who is in-charge of the department to whom the files or papers relate or belong. The concerned desk is responsible to record movement of each and every file and paper allotted to it from receipt to despatch. Desk Officers are required to personally supervise day to day works of their desks and submit weekly reports to the Law Secretary.
Buff File System (BFS) and Out Department Folder System (ODFS) is in vogue in this department. Only final views are recorded in out going files and copies of internal noting and final views are preserved in the ODF of the concerned department. All these measures have ensured better distribution and speedier disposal of business.

Public Grievance Cell
There is a Public Grievance Cell in this department. Grievance against any activity of the department is disposed off within one month of receipt of such complaint.

Complaint Committee on Sexual Harassment
A six member ‘Complaint Committee on Sexual Harassment’ has been established in the L.R’s Establishment of this department on 27.11.2004, according to the order of the Hon’ble Apex Court, to prevent sexual harassment towards the working women in the work places. The Committee submits report to the Law Secretary after proper verification, on receipt of any complaint relating to such matter.

B. LEGAL OPINION
Files received from other departments, Corporate Bodies and Public Sector undertakings seeking legal opinion from the Law Department stand cleared within a week. Long pendency factors of old days have been completely wiped out. A Year wise account of the number of files disposed off during the last five years is as follows:-

2003 – 663, 2004 – 692, 2005 – 721, 2006 – 733, 2007 - 621

C. COURT CASE MANAGEMENT – INTRODUCTION OF NEW SYSTEM (WRIT, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASES)

The State Government have engaged (i) one Standing Counsel and one Additional Standing Counsel in the Supreme Court (ii) one Standing Counsel in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and in the High Court at Guwahati (iii) one Government Advocate, two Additional Government Advocates, one Public Prosecutor and one Additional Public Prosecutor in the Agartala Bench of the Gauhati High Court (iv) Government Pleaders and Public Prosecutors in all District Head Quarters (v) Additional Government Pleaders and Additional Public Prosecutors in Dharmanagar, Kamalpur, Khowai, Sonamura and Belonia where courts of Additional District & Sessions Judges have been established. In each criminal court and Executive Magistrate Court one Assistant Public Prosecutor has been engaged. There are total 71 numbers of retained lawyers in the State except the Advocate General.

Click here to see the list of retained lawyers and their telephone numbers.
 

For effective defense and management of court cases the following new measures have been taken:-

i) Engagement of panel lawyers – shortcut procedure.

The old and long procedure for engaging lawyers from panel for conducting cases has been discontinued and shortcut procedure has been adopted. This is being monitored from L.R’s Office located at the court complex itself.

ii) Appointment of Nodal Officers and staff.

At the initiative of the Law Department, Nodal Officer (Legal) and Nodal Staff (Legal) for every department have been appointed to exclusively deal with the court cases. They are responsible for taking every step in connection with court cases of their department. Compilation of guidelines has been issued to the Nodal Officers and staff for effective management of the Government cases. The Nodal Officers and Nodal Staff are given training every year through workshops organised by the Law Department. Problems and complicacy regarding court cases are categorically discussed in those workshops.
Daily Diary system for the court cases is to be maintained by the Nodal Officers (Legal) and Nodal Staff (Legal) and copy of that diary is to be sent to the Law Department.

iii) Introduction of lawyers brief.

The lawyers brief are prepared from the L.R’s Office located at the court complex on the

First receipt of the notice and handed over to the lawyer concerned for conduct of cases. Original files are not given to lawyers.

iv) District and Sub-divisional Committees
For smooth conduction of both civil and criminal cases and to maintain a momentum in between the investigating officers and prosecutors, District level co-ordination Committees and Sub-divisional Monitoring Committees have been formed. Members of the District Committee are the District Magistrate & Collector, Superintendent of Police, Public Prosecutor, Government Pleader and Chief Medical Officer, whereas the members of the Sub-divisional Committee are the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sub Divisional Police Officer, Additional Public Prosecutor/Additional Government Pleader/Assistant Public Prosecutor and Sub Divisional Medical Officer. The members of the each committee sit in a meeting every month and monitor the status of the court cases to send monthly report to the Law Department.

v) District Monitoring Committees
With a view to ensure effective supervision of withdrawal of cases against surrendered extremists District Level Committees have been constituted to coordinate and monitor the works of prosecuting agency. In each of the three judicial Districts three separate five member committees have been formed under the chairmanship of the Public Prosecutor of the respective district. The committees monitor the filing of applications under Section 321 of the Cr.P.C, for withdrawal of cases against surrendered extremists, review the position of such application pending in different courts and take appropriate steps for filing revision against the order refusing to grant permission of withdrawal of such cases and inform the updated position of pending cases to the Home Department. The committees meet once in a month.


D. LEGISLATION.

All State Laws are drafted, Processed and monitored by the Law Department from the stage of introduction in the Assembly to the stage of assent of the Governor or President. Bills are drafted by the Law Department.

Click here to see the list of principle legislations prepared by the Law Department during the period 2003 to 2007.


E. PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS.

It is the Administrative Department of the State Legislature. One handbook on Parliamentary practice and procedure has been published.

F. FREE LEGAL SERVICES AND LEGAL AWARENESS.

The conventional Justice delivery system is time-taking, expensive and not accessible to all segments of people. Poverty, illiteracy and ignorance of law is the main barrier in the way of justice. Though the system can not be changed overnight, but to overcome from this inscrutable situation, an alternative justice delivery system has been introduced. This is the simple system to adjudicate the pre-litigative disputes through conciliation which is inexpensive, easy, smooth, speedy and uncomplicated, preserving the legal and constitutional right of the people and in accordance with the law of the land. For effective implementation of this system, State Legal Services Authority in the State has been formed according to the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. This system has already become popular by this time. Three important aspects of free legal services are (i) to extend the existing system of free legal services to the weaker sections of the people (ii) only ten to fifteen percent of the legal disputes reach the court for adjudication. Remaining huge numbers of disputes are left unattended by the present judicial system. To settle those huge number of disputes by way of conciliation through the participation of all class of people (iii) to create and enhance the legal awareness of the weaker section of people about the various social and beneficial legislation and schemes.

Law Department monitors legal services programmes through Legal Services Authority. Secretary of the Law Department is the ex-officio Member-Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority.

A considerable portion of the people of this country is ignorant of law. They can not take the advantage of law due to their poverty and illiteracy. They are not so much conscious about their legal rights, how much they are, about their democratic right. We are constitutionally duty bound to aware people about their legal rights and to provide them legal facilities. Women, Scheduled castes, Scheduled Tribes, Unskilled labourers, indebted corvee, children, harmed person of natural calamities like draught and flood and any other poor people having annual income not more than Rupees Fifty thousand, all of them are entitled to get free legal service.

Free legal service contains all expenses like advocate fees, copying cost, transportation cost for case purpose and costs for case related papers etc.

To see the information regarding the activities and achievements of the Tripura State Legal Services Authority please visit www. slsatripura.in.

G. HIGH COURT AND STATE JUDICIARY.

Law Department is the Administrative Department in matters pertaining to the High Court and State Judiciary. Establishment of courts, creation of posts, budget for the State Judiciary, creation of infrastructure, framing of rules and expansion of Judiciary are some of the important functions of the department.

H. CODIFICATION OF STATE LAWS.

Long felt necessity for codification of State Laws has been materialized. It is available in two volumes.
Long awaited project of compilation of the state Rules has been materialized and the Book naming ‘Compendium of Statutory Rules under Tripura State Acts’ consisting 45 state Rules, has been formally released on 14th July, 2008. It is now available to purchase from the Library of the Law Department.

I. TRIBUNALS AND COMMISSIONS.

This Department constitutes various Enquiry Commissions and Tribunals whenever felt necessary.

J. APPOINTMENT OF NOTARY PUBLIC.

The Law Department appoints Notary Public for the whole or any part of the state of Tripura, according to Section 3 of The Notaries Act, 1952.
According to Section 6 of the Act, the list of Notaries appointed by the State Government is published in the official Gazette during the month of January every year.
List of Notary for the year 2008

The ‘Certificate of Practice’ of Shri Ajit Kumar Dhar, Notary Public, Sabroom, South Tripura has been cancelled by a Notification bearing No.F.3(1)-Law/Estt-3(ii)/07 Dated 25.07.2008. He has been perpetually debarred from practice as such Notary and his name has been removed from the Register of Notaries.

 

Sl. No.	Name of Notary	Address	Educational Qualification	Area of Practice	Regn. No.
1.	Shri Hiralal Bhowmik	Kailashahar Bar	B.A, LL.B	North Dist.	1/2001
2.	Shri Dilip Naha Biswas	Agartala Bar	B.A, LL.B	West Dist.	2/2001
3.	Sri Ranjan Krishna Das	Udaipur Bar	B.A, LL.B	South Dist.	3/2001
4.	Sri Sukhamoy Dey	Dharmanagar Bar	B.Sc, LL.B	Dharmanagar	4/2006
5.	Sri Ajit Kr. Dhar*	Sabroom Bar	B.Com, LL.B	Sabroom	5/2006
6.	Sri Jyotirmoy Som	Belonia Bar	B.A, LL.B	Belonia	6/2006
7.	Md. Matiur Rahaman	Kailashahar Bar	B.A, LL.B	Kailashahar	7/2006