SCBA requests Supreme Court to disallow unlisted, out of turn mentioning by Senior Advocates in fresh matters

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has written to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to implement a slew of proposals passed by the Executive Committee of the SCBA in its meeting held on February 2. These include pertinent proposals with regard to mentioning and listing of matters..One of the proposals is that “Senior Advocates must not be allowed to make urgent, out of turn, fresh unlisted mentioning.” It has also requested that mentioning in pending matters be made only before the Bench hearing the matter and fresh unlisted mentioning be placed before the first Five Benches of the Court..The following are the proposals made by the SCBA:.(a) Fresh urgent unlisted mentioning matters be placed before first Five Hon’ble Benches, based on subject matter allocation.(b) Senior Advocates must not be allowed to make such urgent, out of turn, fresh unlisted mentioning.(c) In pending matters, mentioning be permitted to be made to the respective Benches seized of the matter, for any urgent directions..The SCBA has also requested that the hearing of matters on miscellaneous days, that is Mondays and Fridays be held in two sessions – from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM followed by lunch from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM and the balance post lunch. Currently, all matters are heard in one bunch without lunch break. This, the SCBA has asserted, is causing tremendous rush inside and outside the court rooms and is causing serious difficulties to lawyers including health issues due to untimely lunch..Further, it has also urged the Supreme Court to email office reports to advocates in addition to causelists and to make available on the Supreme Court website all archived causelists. The SCBA has also requested the Court to expand the Ladies Bar Lounge by merging it with the rooms adjacent to existing Ladies Bar Lounge..It is also learnt that the SCBA would be writing to those members of the Bar who have chambers but are not using them to surrender it so that it can be allotted to other “deserving members of the Bar”..It is interesting to note that the ex-Chief Justice of India RM Lodha had tightened the procedure for mentioning including disallowing Senior Advocates from mentioning matters and stopping the practice of letter circulation. Current Chief Justice HL Dattu had, however, relaxed these Rules after he took over from Justice Lodha.