SCBA & SCAORA Jointly Move Apex Court Seeking Direction That Appearance Of All Lawyers Present And Appearing In A Case Be Recorded

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Supreme Court Advocates on-Record Association (SCAORA) have jointly filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court seeking that all the Advocates present and appearing in a particular case be entitled to mark their appearance through their Advocate-on-Record as per Supreme Court Rules, 2013.

The Petition has been filed today through AoR Astha Sharma and is settled by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Atmaram Nadkarni, Rachana Srivastava and Gagan Gupta.

As per the Petition, the cause of action for filing the Writ Petition has arisen because different benches of the Court have passed orders regulating the practice and procedure for marking appearances, which has deprived Advocates practising before the Apex Court of getting their appearances marked in the Orders and has created inconsistencies in practice before different benches.

The Writ Petition says that the Judgment passed by the Bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi in September, 2024 in the matter of Bhagwan Singh v. State of U.P. & Ors., where the Court held that "Advocates on Record may mark the appearances of only those Advocates who are authorized to appear and argue the case on the particular day of hearing" is contrary to the settled practice of the Court and is in an overreach of the directions issued on the administrative side.

"Apart from that, such restriction on marking of the appearance will adversely affect the professional career of each and every member of the Petitioner Associations as it not only deprives the member of requisite fee but also hamper his future aspirations as appearances are used as a basis for chamber allotment, senior designation, government empanelment, securing voting rights for Petitioner Association No. 1 and many other such benefits which a regular practitioner before this Hon’ble Court is entitled for", the petition reads.

The Petitioners argue that the said Judgment was passed without hearing the Advocates collectively or the Petitioner Associations in their representative capacity. The Petitioners contend that the Judgment passed in September last year is in the nature of practice directions which cannot be passed to overreach the extant rules and practice procedure formulated by the Chief Justice of India on the administrative side.

The Petition says that all the advocates enrolled in the State rolls as per the Advocates Act, 1961 has been conferred with the right to practice in all Courts throughout India, including the Supreme Court of India. "If an Advocate is entitled to appear before any court, then he is entitled for recording his appearance in the order of that Court as well", the Petitioners argue.

The Petition states, "Representation or appearance before the Court is not limited to making submissions before the Hon’ble Court. Moreover, an Advocate is not entitled to make submissions as per the norms of the profession when a Senior Advocate is submitting before the Hon’ble Court, this should not disentitle her of her right to appearance before the Court. Role of the Advocate is not limited to making submissions, more so when she is appearing before the highest constitutional court of the land, but may extend to research of relevant case laws, secure appropriate instructions from the client, preparing the brief for the Senior Advocate, making written submissions for the Hon’ble Court, drafting the pleadings, filing of the case before the Hon’ble court and much more which goes before a case could be heard and adjudicated by this Hon’ble Court".

As per the Petitioners, non-recording of the appearances of the Junior Advocates will not only deprive them of the benefit of voting rights in association elections and chamber allocation but also affect their chances of being designated as a Senior Advocate by this Hon’ble Court.

The Associations seek the following relief from the Apex Court:

"a) Declaration that appearances of all the Senior Advocates/Advocate-on-Record/Advocates be recorded in the record of proceedings of a particular case when they are present and appearing in that particular case once the same is submitted by the concerned Advocate-on-Record in the prescribed form as per Supreme Court Rules, 2013;

b) Direction to the Respondent to issue a general guideline for adopting the practice direction in terms of prayer (a) uniformly across all benches of this Hon’ble Court".

Cause Title: The Supreme Court Bar Association & Anr. v. The Supreme Court of India