Delhi High Court Seeks Centre's Stand On Plea Alleging Arbitrariness In Appointment Of Panel Counsel Before Supreme Court

A petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court alleging arbitrariness and unfairness in the appointment of lawyers as Union Government's panel counsel before the Supreme Court.

Moved by First-Generation Lawyers Association (FGLA), the plea seeks quashing of the empanelment list published on November 21, alleging that it includes names of lawyers who are ineligible for appointment, including numerous advocates who were enrolled only in the year 2024 and 2025 and some who have not even cleared the All India Bar Examination (AIBE).

A division bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela heard the matter today and asked ASG Chetan Sharma to seek instructions in the matter.

Advocate Rudra Vikram appeared for the petitioner Association and highlighted alleged discrepancies in the empanelment list.

ASG Sharma said that the matter will be looked into and requested the hearing to be adjourned to next week. “We may agree with the petitioner. I am not saying we shall. We will consider it,” he said.

The Court listed the matter for hearing on next Wednesday.

“List on next Wednesday to enable the learned ASG to seek instructions,” the Court said.

The plea avers that the impanelment suffers from serious procedural irregularities, absence of published eligibility norms, lack of transparency in evaluation and non-disclosure of any objective selection mechanism.

It further said that the impugned notification does not disclose any criteria used for selecting the listed advocates, invitation for applications, public notice, or objective evaluation parameters.

“Furthermore, several advocates with decades of experience have been excluded without any explanation, while those with extremely limited experience, some having only months of practice have been included in the highest category of Government Counsel,” the plea said.

It seeks framing of a transparent and uniform eligibility criteria for appointment or engagement of Central Government Counsel before the Supreme Court, including minimum experience, case-handling exposure, AIBE qualification and domain knowledge.

The plea further seeks constitution of an Independent Screening Committee comprising retired judges or independent legal experts for supervising future empanelment processes of Central Government Counsel before the Supreme Court.

The petition has been filed by Advocates Rudra Vikram Singh, Ashirvad Kumar Yadav, Neetu Rani and Rashmi.

Title: First Generation Lawyers Association (FGLA) v. Union of India & Or