Rules on authentication of files; SC appoints amicus curiae

The Supreme Court today appointed senior lawyer Ashok Desai as amicus curiae to assist in an appeal of Uttar Pradesh against a High Court order on a PIL pertaining to referring rules of business and the principle of authentication of government files, to a larger bench.
"We appoint Mr. Ashok Desai as an amicus curiae to assist us in the matter," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman said when senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, representing Uttar Pradesh, intimated that another senior lawyer Anil Diwan, whose name was suggested by the court, was not available due to his poor health.

The state administration has filed an appeal in the apex court against the decison of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court to refer the PIL to a larger bench.
Activist Nutan Thakur, in her PIL in the High Court, had raised questions relating to the decision making process being adopted by the state Government in terms of the provisions contained in the Rules of Business framed by the Governor under Article 166(3) of the Constitution.
Article 166 provides that the Conduct of Business of the Government of a state, according to which all executive actions of the state Government are to be expressed to be taken in the name of the Governor.

The PIL had sought a direction to the chief minister that he should direct bureaucrats in his office to stop signing documents in the name of the CM.
The apex court, which had issued the notice on the appeal of UP, had asked the counsel for the state to file an affidavit explaining the position existing in the state, "regard being had to the constitutional provisions, the rules of business and the principle of authentication.