The Supreme Court on Thursday raised concern over a
large numbers of lawyers marking their appearance in cases, and their names
running into several pages, whereas an order was only a few pages.
A bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and
Satish Chandra Sharma said if a lawyer was assisting the court
"effectively" it had no problem in adding the appearance.
"Names of lawyers go into 10 pages and the
order will go into only a few pages. We are not passing any orders on how the
names of advocates should be included in the order. Since you are representing
the Bar, we are hearing out," it said.
The top court said though many lawyers appeared with
the arguing counsel, nobody argued when asked to.
"Or we would have clearly said you have no
locus. Whoever is attached with the lawyer, their names are there. It cannot be
done like that. When we see they are assisting you effectively, their names are
there. We will pass the orders," the bench told senior advocate Kapil
Sibal, appearing for the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
Sibal submitted the SCBA and the Supreme Court
Advocates-on-Record Association would submit a proposal to regulate the issue.
"You are right; 30-40 names cannot be given.
But some reasonable, fair procedure to ensure that genuine people who are here
and their names should be added," he said.
The top court was hearing a plea by the associations
seeking a direction to its administration regarding uniform guidelines to allow
all advocates present and appearing in a particular case to mark their
appearances.
In an order passed on September 20 last year, the
top court said advocates-on-record could mark the appearances of only those
lawyers who were authorised to appear in the court and argue on a particular
day of hearing.
It said according to a December 30, 2022 notice
issued by the apex court, only advocates-on-record could mark the appearances
of the lawyers appearing in the court through the link provided on the website
or on the office mobile app of the Supreme Court.
The court said the notice nowhere permitted the
advocates-on-record to mark the appearances of those lawyers who were not
authorised either to appear in the court or argue a case.
The apex court's direction came while ordering a CBI
inquiry in a case in which a petitioner denied filing an appeal and claimed he
had never hired any of the lawyers present in the court to file a case on his
behalf.