Yesterday (11 December 2014), the Government of India appointed about 500 new Panel Counsel / Advocates for conducting cases in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Central Government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and some other Central Government agencies (see the list of advocates here). These Advocates will be attached with the Central Agency Section of the Ministry of Law and Justice in the Supreme Court of India at New Delhi.
These are the first such appointments by the new Central Government led by Shri Narendra Modi. These new appointments include 209 Group “A” Panel Counsel, 186 Group “B” Panel Counsel, and 101 Group “C” Panel Counsel. Their appointments are valid for three years or till further orders, whichever is earlier. This new list issued vide an order dated 11 December 2014 of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, is in supersession of all earlier orders relating to the appointment of Special Counsel and Group A, B and C Counsel. Interestingly, just about a month back, the Ministry of Law and Justice had issued order for appointment of about 50 Special Counsel; however, now that list has been superseded and those 50 advocates have also been reappointed now in the new list, mostly as Group “A” Panel Counsel. In this way, all these about 50 Special Counsel have been virtually downgraded in a short period of about a month only.
