Supreme Court puts on hold decision to allow only lawyers present for hearing to mark appearance in orders

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to defer its decision to which mandated that only lawyers present in court physically or online during hearings can mark their appearances in court orders/ record of proceedings. .Senior Counsel and Supreme Court Bar Association President Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before a Bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Rajesh Bindal today and sought time to streamline and resolve the issue. The Court then agreed to defer its order passed on August 29..The matter will next be heard on September 11..In the order concerned, the Bench had directed that only lawyers who are present in court physically or online during hearings are allowed to mark their appearance for cases (in the record of court proceedings, orders or judgments)..That order was passed while hearing a batch of part-heard contempt petitions on August 29.During that hearing, the Court noted that a lawyer who was not in town during a hearing was sought to be entered in the list of lawyers who had appeared for the proceedings. The said lawyer's name was submitted through an online portal launched in December 2022, called the Advocate Appearance Portal, by which Advocates-On-Record (AoRs) are required to put in the names of lawyers appearing in a matter, every morning. .However, during the hearing on August 29, the Bench was told that the said lawyer was not present in the courtroom either physically or through video conference.The Bench further noted that there were other lawyers as well whose names were submitted for marking their appearance, even though they were not present in Court..The Court lamented that the Advocate Appearance Portal was only meant to be used to mark the presence of those lawyers who are actually in Court to argue the matter or assist in the arguments."It would not mean that the advocate, who is neither present personally nor online, may be allowed to mark his presence by furnishing online information," the Court said in its August 29 order.The Court added that even lawyers associated with the office of the arguing counsel, but not present physically in the courtroom or by video conference, should not mark their appearance."We forthwith direct that in this Court, online presence of only those advocates be furnished and be marked who are appearing or assisting during hearing ... and not of those who are not present in Court but may be associated in office of the advocates," the Court ordered.The SCBA and the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) were requested to ensure compliance with the directive..Sibal then chose to mention the matter today seeking to defer the order.