JUDGMENT

G.S. SINGHVI, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Legal Remembrancer’s Manual (for short, ‘LR Manual’) framed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Section 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) contain a comprehensive mechanism for appointment of District Government Counsel for Civil, Criminal and Revenue Courts in the State and renewal of their term. However, from 1990 onwards these provisions have become victim of the spoil system and have been misused by the party in power for conferring favours upon chosen advocates. In last 21/2 decades the appointments and renewal or non-renewal of the term of District Government Counsel and termination of their services generated huge litigation, the disposal of which has consumed substantial time of the Allahabad High Court and this Court.

3. In Kumari Shrilekha Vidyarthi v. State of U.P. (1991) 1 SCC 212, this Court declared as arbitrary and unconstitutional the State Government’s decision to en masse terminate the appointment of District Government Counsel in all the districts as a prelude to fresh appointments.

4. In State of U.P. v. Ramesh Chandra Sharma (1995) 6 SCC 527, this Court interpreted paragraph 7.06(3) of the LR Manual and