Every lawyer should guide at least 15 juniors: SC

NEW DELHI: Senior lawyers should take younger colleagues under their wing and train them in court craft so that a new generation was ready when the seniors hang up their boots, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.

“We want the young generation of this profession to be groomed so that by the time the older generation wants to quit, the young generation is ready. There is a gap,” said a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and BV

Nagarathna. Every senior lawyer should guide at least 15 junior lawyers, it said.

Lamenting that the second line of lawyers who could take over seems to be “substantially missing”, the bench observed that at least a third of those coached by senior advocates would be able to make the grade.

“Ultimately, the second line has to come up, which is substantially missing at present. This has to be filled up in a very short period,” the bench told counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was appearing in a case during court’s summer vacation. On Monday, the bench had remarked that the vacation benches in the top court were meant for young lawyers to learn the ropes, and not for senior counsel to continue appearing, as it urged several veteran lawyers, including Singhvi, to exercise “self-restraint”. Starting May 23, the vacation benches in the apex court will sit till July 8. When Singhvi showed up on Monday to argue a case, the court told him: “Vacation is not meant for seniors. It is only for juniors.” The counsel retorted that he agreed with the bench, but there should be a uniform rule in this regard applicable to all seniors. Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora joined the dialogue. She recounted her experience as a junior counsel.

“We have all been a beneficiary of that. When I came in, only juniors could mention (to get a date of hearing)…juniors must appear,” Arora said. The bench suggested that the Bar Council of India could also organise lectures by those who have experience on various aspects of advocacy and court etiquette.