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In Re: Advocate on Record Includes a Proprietary Firm Etc.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 34Decided 20 Jan 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1107 of 2020
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari · Justice Hrishikesh Roy

Background

An Advocate-on-Record, Siddharth Murarka, had sent repeated and intemperately worded emails to the Supreme Court Registry complaining that he was not allowed to file cases using a proprietorship-style name ("Law Chambers of Siddharth Murarka") the way two-or-more-advocate partnership firms are permitted to under the Supreme Court Rules. The Registry's administrative response escalated the matter to a judicial proceeding, and the Court appointed the Vice-President of the Supreme Court Bar Association as amicus curiae to explain the history and scope of the relevant rules on Advocates-on-Record.

Decision Breakdown

The Court first noted that Mr. Murarka unconditionally withdrew his earlier intemperate emails and agreed not to repeat such conduct. On the substantive question, the Court declined to generally expand the rules to allow sole-proprietorship "firm" names for individual Advocates-on-Record, holding that any such broader change must come from the rule-making authority, not from a judicial order, since the Supreme Court Rules are deliberately structured and the legal profession is not meant to be treated as a business. However, on the narrow facts, the Court permitted Mr. Murarka specifically to use the letterhead/Vakalatnama style "Law Chambers of Siddharth Murarka, Sole Proprietor Siddharth Rajkumar Murarka, AOR No. 2151," treating it merely as descriptive of his individual registered practice rather than as a separate registered firm.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will resolve a narrow individual grievance pragmatically even while declining to rewrite general procedural rules by judicial fiat, and professional communications with a court registry should stay restrained, since intemperate correspondence can itself become the subject of judicial scrutiny.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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