SC Directs All State Standing Counsel To Consider 'Convenience Note' Submitted By Adv Sumeer Sodhi As Standard Format To Present Cases On Behalf of States

This is how a case can be presented on behalf of the State, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit remarked in an order while appreciating the presentation by a state counsel Sumeer Sodhi who submitted 'convenience notes'.

Advocate Sumeer Sodhi had appeared on behalf of State of Chattisgarh in a criminal appeal preferred by the accused in a murder case.

The court, in its judgment reproduced a 'convenience note' submitted by him (see paged 3-5) in which he briefly and succinctly described the details of FIR, accused persons, history of proceedings and also the legal submissions on behalf of the state.

Though the bench, also comprising Justices Vineet Saran and S. Ravindra Bhat, allowed the appeal filed by the accused, it said: "We must observe that the presentation made by Mr. Sumeer Sodhi in the Note extracted above is an illustration how a case can be presented on behalf of the State. We may suggest that said Note may be taken as the Standard Format by all the learned counsel appearing for various State Governments in this Court. "

The court also directed the Registry to circulate copies of this Order to all the learned Standing Counsel for the States.

The contention of the appellants in this case was that their case stood on the similar footing as that of other four accused whose appeals were allowed by the Supreme Court  in an earlier judgment.  The Court said that it is satisfied that the role attributed to the present appellants was not in any way different from that attributed to the other four acquitted accused.

CASE: KAUSHAL VERMA vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH [CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.843 OF 2020] 

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