{"id":34381,"date":"2018-10-30T17:17:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34381"},"modified":"2018-10-30T17:17:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:47:47","slug":"the-gown-and-the-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-gown-and-the-bench\/","title":{"rendered":"The gown and the Bench:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/the-gown-and-the-bench\/article19908780.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gown and the Bench<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines for designating lawyers in the Supreme Court and High Courts as senior advocates<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How are lawyers designated a senior lawyer?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applications for designation is submitted to the Designation Committee, which examine the same and give its views to the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Designation Committee shall consist of the Attorney General for India<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secretary, SCBA may be asked to act as the convener and in charge of records.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 2 eminent senior members are to be nominated by the Attorney General for India<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A basic threshold\/eligibility for all applicant is required.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is suggested that the applicants must have Argued at least 25 cases in the Supreme Court in the last 3 years<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, the applicant should have put in 18-20 years of practice.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Designation Committee would deliberate upon the credentials of the applicants and submit a note to the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court is requested to deliberate upon each candidate giving due consideration to the same.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What changed now?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Application will be vetted by a permanent committee known as the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates that will publish the names of candidates on the respective courts\u2019 websites to ensure transparency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Political interference in the selection of judges in the third and fourth decades of independent India resulted in the collegium system where judges select judges<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the criticisms for the present selection process?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opaque system and unsatisfactory selection, transfer, and elevation of judges to the Supreme Court caused disquiet and led to the passing of the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until now, the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts had the sole discretion of according this status to advocates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014, which sought to give politicians and civil society a final says in the appointment of judges to the highest courts. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Political Influence<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Political interference in the selection of judges in the third and fourth decades of independent India resulted in the collegium system where judges select judges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opaque system and unsatisfactory selection, transfer, and elevation of judges to the Supreme Court caused disquiet and led to the passing of the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014, which sought to give politicians and civil society a final says in the appointment of judges to the highest courts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inclusion of the Law and Justice Minister in the NJAC was faulted on the ground that participation of the executive would erode the independence of the judiciary.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the significance of the new selection committee?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will consist of the Chief Justice of India, two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court\/ High Courts, the Attorney General of India\/ the Advocate General of State, and a member of the Bar to be nominated by the above four members.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The committee will have a permanent secretariat.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All applications for designation of senior advocate will be submitted to the secretariat which will compile all the relevant information with regard to the reputation, conduct, integrity, participation in pro-bono work, reported judgments in which the advocate has appeared, etc. of the candidates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee will examine each candidate\u2019s case, interview the candidate, and make its assessment based on a point-based format.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The secretariat should not be dragged into the quagmire of investigating frivolous complaints or objections.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While this institutional mechanism and selection criteria seem suited to substitute the existing collegium system, the executive and the legislature could also seriously consider introducing a new version of the NJAC which incorporates the salient features of this institutional mechanism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sooner the judiciary adopts such a mechanism for judges too, the better it is for the institution<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gown and the Bench:\u00a0 Context The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines for designating lawyers in the Supreme Court and High Courts as senior advocates How are lawyers designated a senior lawyer? Applications for designation is submitted to the Designation Committee, which examine the same and give its views to the Supreme Court. The&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-gown-and-the-bench\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The gown and the Bench:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704643667},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}