The Chief Justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde on 16 January, 2020 put forth the idea of a minimum experience perquisite for advocates to appear before the Supreme Court.
The bench comprising the Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant advocated the idea before the Supreme Court when senior Lawyer & Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Dushyant Dave raised the issue of difficulties being faced by Lawyers in getting the matters listed for urgent hearing.
Mr. Dave told the bench, "My lords, the Bar is facing problems in getting the matters listed for urgent hearing before the mentioning officer". CJI Bobde who has consistently been putting forth that the mentioning of cases should be done before the mentioning officer & not before the first court, said, “We do not want to start the day like this. The idea of urgency in the mind of Bar is different.”
"We know that we have the power to restore the status quo ante (power to nullify the impact of orders of the court below) if required," the bench said, adding that a woman Advocate has been seeking an urgent hearing now of a plea which was filed in 2017; in order to establish the requirement for experienced advocates.
The SCBA president told the bench “I straight away agree (to the suggestion) that there should be minimum 10 years of experience to stand in this court.”
Author: Nandini Gandhi
