Retain panel lawyers for six weeks after government change to avoid adjournments: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday suggested States and Union Territories to ensure that empaneled government lawyers are retained for at least six weeks after a change in government before they are replaced by new lawyers [Sachin Kumar vs State of Uttarakhand]..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stated that the existing practice, where panel lawyers are promptly phased out after a regime change, was leading to unnecessary adjournments, thereby, causing inconvenience to courts and litigants."During the last few months, this Court has noticed that after the change of power from one political party to another, the States/ Union Territories are changing their panel of Advocates appearing in this Court. Therefore, this Court is required to grant adjournments from time to time on the ground of change. It is true that the States/ Union Territories have power to change their empaneled advocates, but while doing so, they must ensure that the Court’s functioning is not adversely affected," the Court said..Therefore, it suggested that a regime change should not immediately lead to a change in the government's panel counsel. "It will be appropriate if the States/Union Territories while changing the panel of advocates continue the old panel for at least 6 weeks so that the courts are not forced to grant adjournments," the bench said.It also directed that a copy of this order be circulated to the Standing Counsel of all States and Union Territories..The observations came while hearing the bail plea by a man accused of cheating in an examination organised by the Uttarakhand government.The Uttarakhand High Court had denied him bail on December 10, 2023, leading to an appeal before the apex court.On March 20, the Supreme Court directed the personal appearance of the State Law Secretary to explain why the State was seeking adjournments on the ground that panel advocates were changing.The State government later informed that the panel had been changed as it had remained the same for the last eight years. .As for the main appeal, the Court eventually granted bail to the appellant-accused before it, after noting that four other co-accused persons had already been granted bail. "The counter affidavit discloses that charge-sheet has been filed and charge has been framed. 19 prosecution witnesses have been cited. The offences are triable by the Court of the learned Judicial Magistrate. The appellant has undergone incarceration for a period of more than one and a half years. No antecedents of the appellant have been brought on record," the Court further noted while allowing the appeal. .Advocates Aadil Singh Boparai, Sumer Singh Boparai, Gurlabh Singh Bhaika Sidhu, Srishti Khanna, Vaibhav Dabbas, Sidhant Saraswat, Sachin Kumar, and Amarjeet Singh appeared for the appellant, one Sachin Kumar.Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Uniyal and advocates Namita Choudhary and Srishti Choudhary represented the State of Uttarakhand..[Read order]