On June 13, 2021, Supreme Court Bar Association has clarified that its letter to CJI for Elevation of Supreme Court Lawyers to High Courts was intended only to get an equal opportunity for Supreme Court Lawyers to be considered for Elevation to High Courts.
The Senior president Vikas Singh stated that “words used in the communique were only to stress the point in favor of having a transparent and robust system for consideration of our lawyers".
Singh further stated that in the letter it has been mentioned that High Court Collegium may consider names given to them along with lawyers from their respective Bars to select the most deserving candidate without giving any preferential treatment to either Supreme Court or High Court legal advisors.
The press release also read that,
“Reference to the SC lawyers being ‘more meritorious’ in my letter to the CJI was for the limited purpose of ensuring their consideration for elevation by the HC collegiums on equal footing basis and there was no intention whatsoever to cast any aspersion on the lawyers practicing in the different HCs,”
SCBA had asked before the CJI that despite having immense experience and exposure in dealing with all kinds of issues related to civil, criminal, constitutional, corporate law, etc., the lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court are rarely considered for elevation by the High Court Collegium as they don't practice regularly before the High Court and while being professionally more meritorious than their colleagues at the High Court, lose the opportunity for being considered as such.
Background
The DHCBA (Delhi High Court Bar Association) wrote to the CJI against SCBA’s (Supreme Court Bar Association) May 31, 2021, proposal to consider apex court lawyers for elevation as high court judges, saying the practice would be “unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory”, and would create resentment among high court lawyers.
The DHCBA had disapproved of Singh’s comment, calling it “not only false and misleading”, but also one that “undermines the competence and talent of lawyers practicing before the High Courts”.
Therefore, the SCBA President, in his response, said, “I sincerely believe that every lawyer practicing in India is a citizen of India and therefore should be fairly considered for elevation based on merit alone, no matter where he/she practices”.
The DHCBA’s letter urged the CJI to “withdraw such directives, if any, issued to the Chief Justices of High Courts” that the lawyers practicing in the apex court be considered for elevation as the high court judges at SCBA’s request.
