Act Of Advocate Intending To Represent A Party In A Case Before The Court Without Any Authority Amounts To Soliciting Briefs: Patna HC [Read SoP]

The observation was made by Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh after he had to "abruptly terminate" proceedings of a criminal case due to "continual disturbances" caused by participating Advocates.

On October 15, 2020, Justice Singh had to terminate proceedings in the case titled Chhotan Singh v. State of Bihar as some Advocates kept interrupting the Court in midst of arguments and during the course of dictation of orders.

When the matter was taken up on Monday, the Bench recounted that some Additional Public Prosecutors kept demanding that their names be entered and their appearance be recorded in the order-sheets as "In-charge APP", even in such matters which had been allotted by the Office of Advocate General to other APPs.

Deprecating such actions, the Court observed,

"Who is to be authorized to appear in a criminal case or any other case on behalf of the State Government or the Central Government or any other Institution is pure discretion of the such Governments/ Institutions or their agents authorized for the said purpose. An Advocate without authority cannot stand up in a Court of law to claim his right of appearance before a Court to represent a party."

It further cautioned,

"An act of an Advocate representing or intending to represent a party in a case before a court/tribunal without any authority amounts to soliciting briefs which is prohibited under the rules on professional standards that an Advocate is required to maintain under section 49 (1) (c) of the Advocates Act, 1961."

Justice Singh further said that the Court has regularly encountered disturbances in course of on-line video hearing of cases being held during the prevailing extra-ordinary situation. Accordingly, he has laid down and adopted a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed in his Court during the course of VC hearings.

The SoP prescribes as follows:

• A link, in the present order, shall mean a link created by the Court Master/Technical Assistant for a meeting of an "on-line video Court proceeding," which is being loosely referred to as 'virtual court proceedings'.
• The link shall be sent by the Court Master/ Technical Assistant to only such persons who are authorized to participate in the on-line video court proceeding, namely, learned Advocates for the parties to the case and the concerned Secretaries/P.As. The Court Master/Technical Assistant may send a link also to any other person/persons whose presence is needed either for smooth functioning of the on-line video court proceeding or such person has been directed to appear in compliance of an order passed by the Court.
• The link so sent by the Court Master/Technical Assistant shall not be shared by the recipients of the link with any other person except in following circumstances-
• A learned Advocate may share the link with a learned Senior Counsel or any other learned Counsel who has been engaged to represent a party/parties on the instructions of learned Advocate who is on record of the case.
• A learned Advocate may share the link with the party for whom he/she is appearing.
• Recipient of the links shall not further share the link except as stated above.
• All participants of on-line video court proceeding, except the Court Master, shall keep their respective mikes in muted mode once the Court is in session.
• It is indicated that after the beginning of the meeting but before the Court is in session, a learned counsel or party shall be at liberty to inform the Court Master if he intends to make a mention, in exceptional circumstances, in respect of any of the matters which appear on the cause list for the day or any matter disposed by this bench. In such event, the Court Master shall inform the Court as soon as the Court is in session and the Court may instruct the Court Master as it may deem fit.
• After a case is called for hearing, learned counsel for the petitioner/applicant/ appellant shall un-mute his mike and begin his submission first. After conclusion of the submissions on behalf of the petitioner/applicant/appellant, learned counsel for the other side shall be called upon to make his submissions who will likewise make his submissions after un-muting his mike. No other participant shall un-mute his mike unless specifically called upon by the Court.
• After learned counsel representing the parties have concluded their submissions in a case, they shall have an opportunity to add to the submissions which they have already made and thereafter they may make their further submissions as permitted by the Court.
• There shall be no disturbance/interjection by anyone for the entire duration when address is being made by a learned counsel/participant.
• In no circumstance shall a participant interject when an order is being dictated by the Court.
• After conclusion of dictation in a case, the parties may be given liberty by the Court to point out any factual/legal aspect which has been inadvertently recorded or missed to have been recorded.
• During the course of hearing, when a learned counsel for a party is addressing the Court, his video must be on and he must be so visible as to enable the Court to identify the person making submissions on behalf of a party.
• After conclusion of hearing of all the matters to be taken up for the day, the Court may allow the participants to make any mention, if required.
• Every participant should ensure that his name appears along with his image on the screen during on-line video court proceeding.

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