False Statements Case: Supreme Court To Issue Guidelines On The Conduct Of Advocates-on-Record

Today (October 21, 2024), while hearing a matter regarding false statements made to seek remission from a client, the Supreme Court (SC) decided to lay down guidelines on the conduct of Advocates-on-Record (AoR). In this case, Senior Advocate (SA) Rishi Malhotra and AoR Jaydip Pati filed affidavits in a remission case regarding the false statements. The bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Abhay S Oka noted that the SA and the AoR were blaming each other. Justice Oka remarked, “The AoR says he acted on instructions of Senior, the Senior says he gave no such instructions. There is ex-facie misconduct in terms of Supreme Court Rules.” The bench ordered, “This case raises issues of great concern in so far as the responsibility of advocates on record of this court are concerned. Apart from the dispute between Senior and Junior as is reflected from the affidavit on record, the issue is of conduct of the Advocates on Record in light of Explanation A to Rule 10 of Order 4 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013. A very important role has been assigned to the Advocate on record as no litigant can seek redressal of his grievance from this Court without engaging an Advocate on Record. It is therefore necessary to consider framing guidelines for the conduct of advocates from record. Learned president of the SCAORA (Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association) and its office bearers are present. They also agreed to assist the court on this aspect.” The bench appointed SA Dr. S Muralidhar as the amicus curiae in the matter for assistance. Earlier, the top court had requested SCAORA President Vipin Nair to assist the Court in the matter. The SC bench further ordered that SCAORA office bearers could interact with the amicus curiae to give suggestions and listed the matter for hearing on November 11, 2024.