Supreme Court issues new guidelines for designation of Senior Advocates

Ø  These guidelines come after the May 12 ruling in a case seeking modification in the conferment of ‘senior advocate’ designation guidelines rendered in a 2017 SC ruling.

Ø  In doing so, the Bench, replaced the guidelines issued by the top court in 2018, in the aftermath of its 2017 ruling in Indira Jaisingh v. Union of India.

Ø  Although the 2017 guidelines say that the CJI along with “any judge” can recommend an advocate’s name for designation, the 2023 guidelines specify that the CJI along with “any Judge of the Supreme Court” may recommend in writing the name of an advocate for designation.

Ø  Previously, the guidelines stated that 15 marks were set aside for publications.

Ø  However, the new guidelines state that only 5 marks will be given for “publication of academic articles, experience of teaching assignments in the field of law,” and “guest lectures delivered in law schools and professional institutions connected with law” combined.

Ø  Besides this, the weightage given to reported and unreported judgements has increased from 40 to 50 points in the new guidelines.

Ø  The guidelines discouraged the system of ‘voting by secret ballot”, except in cases where it was “unavoidable.”

Ø  A CJI-chaired committee was created and empowered with powers of conferment. The CJI or any other judge could recommend the name of an advocate for designation.

Ø  Alternatively, advocates could submit their applications to the “Permanent Secretariat”, which would evaluate them on criteria like 10–20 years of legal practice, be it as an advocate, district judge, or judicial member of an Indian tribunal.

Ø  It argued that the “point based system” which awarded 40% weightage to publications, personality, and suitability gauged through the interview is subjective, ineffective, and dilutes the “esteem and dignity of the honour being conferred traditionally.”

Ø  The application pointed to the rampant circulation of “bogus” and “sham” journals where people could publish their articles without any academic evaluation of the contents and quality of the articles, by “paying a nominal amount”.

Ø  Further, the Centre argued that the current requirements for designation are “extraneous” and have resulted in “ousting otherwise eligible candidates”.

Ø  In its May 12 ruling, the top court upheld the interview criteria followed by High Courts and the Supreme Court for designating lawyers as senior advocates but reduced the 15 marks given for the number of publications to 5 marks. The court also clarified that voting by secret ballot was meant to be used in exceptional circumstances.

Ø  The court also said that the criteria should not just be restricted to authorship of academic articles but instead “must also include teaching assignments or guest courses delivered by advocates at law schools”.

Ø  This 2nd edition of MPI is based on the latest National Family Heath Survey [NFHS-5 (2019- 21)].

Ø  These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts. Marked improvement is witnessed across all the 12 indicators.

Ø  These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts. Marked improvement is witnessed across all the 12 indicators.

Ø  The rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.59% to 19.28%. During the same period, the urban areas saw a reduction in poverty from 8.65% to 5.27%. Uttar Pradesh registered the largest decline in number of poor with 3.43 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty.

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Ø  Between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the MPI value has nearly halved  from 0.117 to 0.066 and the intensity of poverty has reduced  from 47% to 44%,

Ø  It will help India in achieving the SDG Target 1.2 (of reducing multidimensional poverty by at least half) much ahead of the stipulated timeline of 2030.

Ø  A British govt. analysis that says the pact would boost UK exports by 1.7 billion pounds ($2.23 billion), imports to the UK by 1.6 billion pounds and gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.8 billion pounds in the long term.

Ø  The pact is expected to take effect in the second half of 2024.

Ø  The pact requires countries to eliminate or significantly reduce tariffs and make strong commitments to opening services and investment markets.

Ø  It also has rules addressing competition, intellectual property rights and protections for foreign companies. CPTPP is seen as a bulwark against China’s dominance in the region,  although the latter has applied to join, along with Taiwan,  Ukraine, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Ø  Politicians in several countries, including the UK and Australia, are lobbying to keep China out, while China is trying to prevent Taiwan from joining.

Ø  Britain is keen to deepen trade ties in the Pacific after Brexit in 2020. Since Brexit, it has sought other trade deals with countries and trading blocs around the world that the govt says have faster-growing economies than the EU.

Ø  However, U.K. will likely struggle to achieve free trade deals with large powers like China in the near term and even its closest ally, the U.S. has said further trade liberalization with Britain is currently off the table.

Ø  Critics say CPTTP and other deals will struggle to compensate for the economic damage sustained by leaving the now-27-member EU — the world’s largest trading bloc and collective economy. As per estimates, UK’s long-term productivity is forecast to be reduced by 4% as a result of Brexit.

Ø  The UK already has trade deals with 10 of the 11 other CPTPP members and the eventual economic boost is likely to increase GDP by just 0.08% annually.

Ø  In 2022, Britain exported 340 billion pounds of goods and services to the EU, 42% of total UK exports.

Ø  Half of global growth is forecast to come from the Indo-Pacific by mid-2030 and growth will continue into the middle of  the century.