This article is written by Khushboo Sharma, LLB student of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University during her internship with LeDroit India.
1. Senior Advocate
Senior advocates are recognized by their skills, hard work and expertise in the field of law. The Supreme Court or High court gives the designation to a lawyer as a senior advocate on the basis of their years of experience. Section 16 of the Advocates Act, 1961 distinguishes between senior advocates and other advocates; an advocate, by his own consent, be designated as a senior advocate if the Supreme court or High Court is of an opinion by virtue of its ability or special knowledge or experience in law or if he is deserving of such distinction. Senior Advocate follows a separate code of conduct as well as is being prohibited from some legal work like drafting, draw pleadings or affidavits; but junior lawyers are not prohibited from the same. Any person who has an expertise in law or has years of experience or has s special knowledge are to be designated as senior advocates whereas junior lawyers learns from mistakes and gain their expertise by practice. Senior advocates are not permitted to appear without an Advocate-on-Record or without any junior and they cannot represent their clients or draft an application on their own.
2. Advocate-on-Record (AOR)
To become an Advocate-on-Record, one needs to pass the examination conducted by the Supreme Court itself; followed by- an advocate must be enrolled with any state Bar Council; have completed 4 years of experience of legal practice with 1 year of training under AOR. As mentioned in Order IV of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013– an Advocate-on-Record shall be entitled to appear for a party in the court or if any advocate addresses or pleads for a party in the court, he has to seek permission and instructions from the AOR as well as from the courts. Only an AOR can file a Vakalatnama in the court on behalf of the client or where the Vakalatnama is executed in the presence of the Advocate-on-Record, he shall certify that it was executed in his presence. Any order or notice issued by the Supreme Court should be sent to AOR. To file a special leave petition, it is necessary to get a certificate issued by an AOR.
3. Other Advocates
Other Advocates or Junior Lawyers are totally different from Senior Advocates and Advocate-on-Record, in terms of qualification, knowledge, experience and skills. To have a specialized knowledge and years of experience in the field of law takes time and hard work, and there starts the struggle of junior lawyers. There certain things which senior advocates are prohibited from doing such as drafting, draw pleadings or affidavits; but junior lawyers are not being prohibited from doing the same. Junior lawyer lack skills to tackle things and learns or gains experience from senior advocates. The status of the junior lawyer does not designated by the Supreme Court or High Court, like in the case of senior advocates. Experience plays an important part which leads the junior ones to success. To gain experience, they need to do lot of internships and had to grasp the skills of tackling the situation from senior advocates.
4. Assistant Prosecution Officers
According to Section 25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure:
(1) The State Government shall appoint in every district one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for conducting prosecutions in the Courts of Magistrates.
(1-A) The Central Government may appoint one or more Assistant Public Prosecutors for the purpose of conducting any case or class of cases in the Courts of Magistrates.
(2) Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (3), no police officer shall be eligible to be appointed as Assistant Public Prosecutor.
(3) Where no Assistant Public Prosecutor is available for the purposes of any particular case, the District Magistrate may appoint any other person to be the Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of that case. However, a police officer shall not be so appointed—
(a) If he has taken any part in the investigation into the offence with respect to which the accused is being prosecuted; or
(b) If he is below the rank of Inspector.
The public prosecutor is the counsel for the Government for conducting prosecution on behalf of the Government. His duty as public prosecutor is not merely to secure the conviction of the accused at all costs but to place before the court whatever evidence is in his possession, whether it be in favor or against the accused and to leave court to decide upon all such evidences whether the accused had or had not committed the offence with which he stood charged. He has to be truthful and impartial. His duty to the Court should be fair, independent and unbiased.
5. Advocate General and Attorney General
Advocate General, is the first law officer appointed in the state under Article 165 of the Indian Constitution; which states that; the Governor of each State shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed a Judge of a High Court to be Advocate-General for the State. He is appointed by the Governor of the State and no fixed tenure is being given as he holds office till the pleasure of the Governor. Submit his resignation to the Governor and is being assisted by a Solicitor General and 4 Additional Solicitors General.
Attorney General, is the first legal officer of the country and is appointed under Article 76 of the Indian Constitution. He advises union government on all legal matters and also a chief legal advisor for the Central Government. The tenure of the Attorney General is not fixed and holds office at the pleasure of president. Submit his resignation to the President and is being assisted by Additional Advocate Generals.
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