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Judgment
P.V.Kunhikrishnan, J.
The above writ petition is filed with the following prayers:
“(i) Issue a writ of Mandamus or other appropriate writ, order or direction to the respondents to dispose the arrears of entire professional fees as mentioned in Exhibit P1 and P2 along with interest within a time frame to be fixed by this Hon'ble Court;
(ii) Such other relief's which this Hon'ble Court deems fit and necessary in the circumstances of the case and the costs of this case. ”[SIC]
The petitioner was the Standing counsel for the 1st respondent Kochi Corporation for the period from 2011-2021. It is the case of the petitioner that, he had submitted the bill towards special fee in respect of the cases conducted by him during the period of his tenure as the Standing counsel, but was not settled by the respondents. According to the petitioner, about 138 files are pending consideration before the 1st respondent. When this writ petition came up for consideration on 06.06.2022, this Court passed the following order:
“Admit.
Standing Counsel takes notice for the respondents.
Standing Counsel to file counter affidavit, if any, within four weeks.
In the meanwhile, there will be an interim order directing the respondents to pay the admitted amount to the petitioner within a period of four weeks.”
When it was submitted that the above order is not complied, this Court passed an order on 12.07.2022, which is extracted hereunder:
“Admittedly the order dated 6-6-2022 is not complied with. The 2nd respondent will appear in person before this Court on 27-7-2022 for explaining the reason for not complying with the interim order. In the meanwhile if the interim order is complied with, the appearance is dispensed with.”
Now the Standing counsel appearing for the respondents submitted that, about 75,000/- rupees is already paid and some of the files are misplaced. An extension petition is filed praying time for a further period of two weeks to settle the entire bill amount. Standing counsel for the respondents also submitted that, some of the files are misplaced and the petitioner was requested to give the details of the back files. But the counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that, those back files are already handed over. Whatever that may be, the bill amount has to be settled by the respondents which is the duty of the respondent Corporation. The 1st respondent should settle the entire amount due to the petitioner, within a time frame.
Therefore, this writ petition is disposed of in the following manner:
i. The respondents in this writ petition will see that the entire amount due to the petitioner towards advocate fee is disbursed, as expeditiously as possible, at any rate, with in a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment.