ISSN 2455-4782 ROLE OF SENIOR ADVOCATE AND RESTRICTION IMPOSED ON THEM UNDER ADVOCATE ACT, 1961 Authored by: Vaibhavi Chaturvedi* * BBA. L.L.B (H) 9th SEM ABSTRACT An elite rule India's courts. It wears extravagant robes and bills premium expenses. In any case, disputants want it, junior legal advisors endure it, and judges regard it. It is the rule of Senior Advocates. That elite rule shall continue, India's Supreme Court recently decided. But key changes are taking place as presently, advocates seeking to a raised status have an open, systematic way to it as mentioned in the advocate act as well as Supreme Court rules. This research analyzes a thriving group of elite litigators that we call "senior advocates", who practice under the watchful eye of the Indian Supreme Court and high courts. In the Indian legal system, the engulf judges decided with little help, the multiplicity of precedent, and by the centrality of oral presentation, the aptitudes and the reputational capital of these lawyers empowers them to play a focal, rewarding, and remarkable job. Indeed, it is often the senior advocate as much as the judges who lead and propel forward the Indian judiciary system. The research focuses on the journey of senior advocate from the British era as the barrister until the present time as the senior advocate defines under sec. 16 of advocate act, 1961. Keywords: Elite rule, Extravagant robes, Premium expenses, and senior advocate.. 13 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 5 ISSUE 10 ISSN 2455-4782 INTRODUCTION An observer of the lawful scene in contemporary India rapidly ends up mindful of the nearness of a stratum of legitimate hotshots—advocates based at the Supreme Court and in the High Courts who are especially sought after and broadly known. These 'senior Advocates,' as we call them, are the most noticeable and eminent lawful experts in present-day India. Stories flourish of their key discernment, their supernatural articulateness, their outsized salaries, and their contribution to the 'rule of law.' This first-class bunch of legal counselors is associated with pretty much every prominent case. Their customers incorporate India's new rich, major global partnerships, and the nation's political class. A lawyer is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." The profession of law is called a noble profession. It can't be noble merely by calling it as such unless there is a continued, corresponding and expected performance of a noble profession. Its nobility has to be preserved, protected and promoted. The calling of law being a respectable and fair one, it needs to proceed with its significant, helpful and keeping in view the high and rich conventions reliable with its effortlessness, nobility, utility and renowned. Therefore the provision of the Advocates Act and Rules made thereunder entomb Alia went for to accomplish the equivalent should be offered impact to in their actual soul. Bar in the nation to serve the reason for equity which again is respectable one. An advocate shall, at all the time, comport himself in a manner befitting his status as an officer of the court, a privileged member of the community, and gentlemen, bearing in mind that what may be moral and lawful for a person who is not a member to the Bar. The bar council has framed the specific rules regarding putting a restriction on senior advocates and also have laid down the procedure for the designation of an advocate as a senior advocate. The main objective on the paper is to analyze the criteria and procedure for the appointment of senior advocates as well as about the restriction on senior advocates and other advocates to take up the other job, as a legal practitioner, while he is on the roll of a high court, is not entitled to enter into any other service or business without the consent of the court. If he does so, disciplinary action may take place against such a person. 14 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 5 ISSUE 10 ISSN 2455-4782 BACKGROUND I. Pre- Independence In the British era, India has the specialists in law, but nothing that corresponded to the legal professions of the modern world, which are made up of qualified practitioners who represent their clients before courts and tribunals and designing transactions that are affected by the legal rule. The professional pattern in the late 19th century was a composite of the two main streams: (1) the royal or king's courts(1726-1826) in the Presidency towns (Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta), which was under the control of the British crown1and it was administered by British judges and there was a dual profession, with barristers briefed by solicitors. (2) the company's court which was rules by the East India Company around the 1850s and these courts staffed by civil servants and which licensed indigenous vakils to represent clients in those courts. The systems of courts which merged after the 1980s where the East India Company had the control power in that period recruitment to the profession was through multiple sources: Barristers in England, Scotland and Ireland ; elite Indians went to England to secure qualification; others acquired LLB degree with specific period of training under advocate at the Indian courts; and these were joined by those people who had attended law courses in India . In British India, there was no hierarchy of courts. But, there was a hierarchy in each province, culminating in a High Court. Appeal of the judgment made these courts would go to the Privy Council in London and which was expensive and rare. In 1935, under the Government of India Act, a federal court was established with a narrow jurisdiction in British India. 1 Available at http://www.barcouncilofindia.org/about/about-the-legal-profession/history-of-the-legal-profession/ ( Visited on September, 26, 2019) 15 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 5 ISSUE 10 ISSN 2455-4782 II. Post-Independence After Independence in 1947, the Constitution (1950) brought a single hierarchical system of courts, headed by a Supreme Court with an expansive jurisdiction and wide powers of judicial review. Promoters Act (1961) was implemented by the parliament on 19 May 1961, which is "a demonstration to alter and merge the law identifying with lawful specialist" and all the old evaluations of experts (vakils, counselors, pleaders of a few evaluations, and mukhtars) were abrogated. In any case, the main conventional qualifications that remains from the old framework inside this collection of Advocates- Lawyers can be designated as senior advocates by the Supreme Court or any High Courts which was based on what happens in the United Kingdom, where senior lawyers are designated as Queen's Counsel2 (or King's Counsel when applicable), and given silk robes/gowns rather than the regular ones. But the Indian process is more selective while designating advocates as senior advocates because as per the 2013 report of the bar council of India suggested that less than 1% of all enrolled lawyers are senior advocates. Whereas in England just about 10% of all barristers are the Queen's Counsel (QCs). LITERATURE REVIEW I. Admission of Senior Advocates In a long-overdue move aimed at ensuring transparency and more egalitarian representation among the ranks of senior lawyers, the Supreme Court has set out a detailed procedure and clear criteria for designating lawyers as senior advocates. The Advocates Act of 1961- According to section 163 of The Advocates Act, 1961. 2 Available at http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/when-an-advocate-is-counted-as-senior-superior-to-the- rest/1165264/2 (last accessed on 21/11/2010) 3 The Advocates Act,1961. 16 | P a g e JOURNAL ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF LAW [JCIL] VOLUME 5 ISSUE 10 ISSN 2455-4782 “1) Advocate act prescribes that there shall be in India two classes of advocates, advocates, and senior advocates. 2) An Advocate may, with his consent, be designated as senior advocate if the Supreme Court or High court is of an opinion that by his ability, standing at the bar or special knowledge or experience in law he is deserving of such distinction 3) Senior Advocate shall, in the matter of their practice, be subject to such restrictions as the Bar Council of India may, in the interest of the legal profession, prescribe. 4) An Advocate of the Supreme Court who was a senior advocate of the court immediately before the appointed day shall, for the section, be deemed to be a senior Advocate. Provided that were any such senior advocate makes an application before 31 of December 1965 to the Bar council maintaining the role in which his name has been entered that he does not desire to continue as a senior advocate, The Bar Council may grant the application and the role shall be altered accordingly.” In practice, the process of appointments is governed by the rules of the high court and the rules of the Supreme Court which was laid in the following case- In, MS Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India In this case, three-judge bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Rohinton Nariman and Navin Sinha had heard arguments in August by former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, Through Secretary-General and others in Writ Petition (C) No. 454 of 2015 which had very clearly prescribed the parameters for designation of advocates as senior advocates after senior advocate Ms Indira Jaising who filed the petition pointed out that the present system of which certain lawyers were officially given the status of ‘senior advocates' – following which they are provided with special lawyers' robes/gowns4.