8. As stated earlier, the Government prepares a list of Advocates whom the Government wishes to engage. No person should claim that he must be selected by the Government. The reliance placed on Brijeshwar Singh Chahal (supra) is also not applicable to the facts of this case. In the said case, the judgment was passed by the Apex Court while hearing a transfer petition and the question that was raised in the Apex Court was as to whether the appointment of law officers by the State Governments can be questioned or the process by which such appointments are made, can be assailed on the ground that the same are arbitrary, hence, violative of the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. In the said case, the transfer petition was filed for the transfer of a Writ Petition which was challenged by a person who was initially appointed as Assistant Advocate General by order dated 23.04.2002. The appointment was on contractual basis and it was valid till to 31.03.2003, but the same was continued till 31.03.2004 by an order dated 19.07.2003. Thereafter, the Petitioner therein was appointed as Deputy Advocate General in the pay scale of Rs 18,400-22,400/- by order dated 11.01.2008 and his tenure was later extended up to year 2011-2012. It is also pertinent to mention that the law officers in Punjab and Haryana High Court, from where the issue before the Apex Court arose, are entitled to a monthly salary and one of the allegations made by the Petitioner therein was that a number of Law Officers are without work and are only receiving the salary, which, according to the Petitioner therein, was idle salary. Therefore, the challenge before the Apex Court was for a post. In the present case the challenge is for the mode of empanelment of lawyers and not appointment of lawyers to a post. In the present case, there is no salary which is attached to the post of a Panel Counsel. A Panel Counsel is paid on the basis of appearance. It is purely the discretion of the Government to engage a lawyer of its choice to represent it before the Courts.
