As its partial court working days during the summer vacation began on Monday, the Supreme Court made it abundantly clear that it would not allow senior advocates to either mention matters for urgent listing or to argue cases during this period till July 12.
“No senior counsel to make a ‘mentioning’ here. The advocates on record can do the same. No unlisted mentioning allowed,” a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice PB Varale told senior counsel Siddharth Dave who pointed out that the top court was not fully closed.
“There are no holidays. These are partial working days. This is a matter in which notice was issued last week. We have to appear,” Dave insisted.
“You call the AoR (Advocate-on-record) or the instructing counsel. We will hear them but not the senior advocates,” the Bench said.
The Bench made it clear that it would not dismiss any matter in which senior advocates were appearing and would list them for hearing in July on resumption of normal working days.
As some senior advocates said they were not aware of the restriction, Justice Nath said, “I am master of my court. Go to the canteen and eat something.”
Another Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Aravind Kumar did not want senior advocates to mention or argue cases during the summer vacation.
“We are allowing it for today only. But from tomorrow onwards, no senior advocates will be allowed to argue or mention matters. There is a higher chance of issuance of notice if junior advocates argue the matters and there is a higher chance of dismissal if senior advocates argue the case,” Justice Narasimha said.
Similarly, a Bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice AG Masih reiterated that cases would largely be argued by non-designated lawyers.
“Sorry, speaking for myself and my brother judge, for the last three years vacation time has only been meant for those who are not designated Seniors,” Justice Karol told lawyers.
“We have never dismissed a matter during vacation. We encourage younger members of the Bar to argue,” he added.
