Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president, senior advocate Vikas Singh, on Tuesday wrote to the apex court to exclude the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Vice Presidential candidate and senior advocate Jagdeep Dhankar’s name from the top court lawyers’ chambers allotment list.
The letter highlighted that Mr. Dhankar, keeping the interest of the Bar at heart, has “conveyed his wish to voluntarily withdraw from the process of chamber allotment so that other lawyers in need of a chamber may be allotted the same”.
Chambers are allotted within the Supreme Court to apex court lawyers to meet litigants conveniently. Many lawyers have been waiting in line for chamber space for years together.
Allotments are made under the Lawyers’ Chambers (Allotment and Occupancy) Rules. The allotments are made by a committee appointed by the Chief Justice of India and is subject to the top judge’s approval.
The Rules say that allotments would be made to advocates of the Supreme Court who are members of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who regularly practice in the apex court and reside in the Capital. Supreme Court’s advocates-on-record, junior advocates and senior advocates who regularly and mainly practice in the apex court are eligible for allotments.
Mr. Singh’s letter about Mr. Shankar’s wish to be excluded from the list to give room to other lawyers comes even as a row has erupted over the allotment of the court’s newly constructed chambers on twin-sharing basis.
On Monday, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who was heading the Bench hearing the plea against the twin-sharing allotment to lawyers, said the arrangement would help more lawyers to get space. The judge had urged for the withdrawal of the petition.
“Whatever you do will hurt members of the Bar. There are lawyers waiting since 1975. When you say single allotment, automatically the lawyers are cut to half. You must also look at how difficult this will be as opposed to people sitting outside in the Delhi heat,” Justice Chandrachud had said during the hearing.
The judge also recounted how he had functioned out of a 120 sq. ft. chamber in Mumbai.
Senior advocate Pradeep Rai, who is the SCBA vice president, tweeted on Tuesday that “we had written a letter to exclude those names from chamber list who have become judges or occupying constitutional chairs. Like HE Mr Dhankhar, Hon’ble Mr Justice P.S. Narsimha, Mr. Justice Aniruddh P Mayee who has become #SupremeCourt & HC justice respectively”.
Mr. Rai, in a second tweet, added that “though HE Mr. Dhankhar had withdrawn the request of allotment and few other names were incorporated in the list inadvertently. Interestingly the name of Hon’ble minister Mr Bhupendra Yadav’s is also in the list”.
