Which of the following statements are correct ? 1. The Chief Justice of India is the highest Administrative Officer of the Supreme Court of India. 2. The administrative powers for determining the work structure of the Supreme Court and its Registry are exclusively vested in the Chief Justice of India. 3. A person who has been a Judge of the Supreme Court of India can practice after retirement only in the Supreme Court of India and not in any other court within India. 4. A designated Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India is not entitled to appear in the Supreme Court of India without an Advocate-on-Record. Select the answer using the codes given below :
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1, 2 and 3
- (c)3 and 4 only
- (d)2 and 4 only
Answer
Why
Correct — D, (d) 2 and 4 only.
Statement 3 is the quickest to settle and it removes half the options. Article 124(7) of the Constitution provides that no person who has held office as a Judge of the Supreme Court shall plead or act in any court or before any authority within the territory of India. The bar is total. A retired Judge of the Supreme Court may not practise in the Supreme Court, in a High Court, in a subordinate court or before a tribunal - the restriction is absolute and is one of the conditions attached to having held the office. The statement, which permits practice in the Supreme Court alone, describes the position for a retired Judge of a High Court in reverse - Article 220 bars a retired High Court Judge from practising in any court in India except the Supreme Court and the other High Courts - and applies it to the wrong office. Statement 3 being incorrect, options (b) and (c) fall.
Statement 4 is correct. Under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, a senior advocate shall not appear without an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court, and shall not file a vakalatnama or act for a party. The Advocate-on-Record system is peculiar to the Supreme Court: only an advocate on that roll, who has passed the Court's own examination and maintains a registered office within a specified distance of the Court, may file proceedings and be on record for a party. A Senior Advocate, however eminent, argues on the instructions of an Advocate-on-Record. Since statement 4 is correct, an answer that omits it cannot stand, and option (a) falls with the others.
That leaves option (d), which requires statement 2 to be correct and statement 1 to be incorrect - a distinction that is real and worth stating carefully.
Statement 2 is correct. The administrative authority over the Court's own establishment is the Chief Justice's. Article 146(1) provides that appointments of officers and servants of the Supreme Court shall be made by the Chief Justice of India or such other Judge or officer of the Court as he may direct. The Chief Justice is also master of the roster, determining the constitution of Benches and the allocation of judicial work, and the working arrangements of the Court and its Registry are settled under his authority.
Statement 1 is not correct, because it uses the language of office rather than of power. The highest administrative officer of the Supreme Court is the Secretary General, who heads the Registry and under whom the Registrars and the rest of the Court's establishment serve. The Chief Justice is the head of the institution and the repository of its administrative powers; he is not an officer of its establishment. The two statements are placed together precisely so that the difference between holding the power and being the officer has to be noticed.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)1 and 2 only — This option accepts statements 1 and 2 and rejects statement 4. Rejecting statement 4 is the decisive error: the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 are explicit that a senior advocate shall not appear without an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court, and the Court has restated the position in recent orders. The option also accepts statement 1, which describes the Chief Justice as the highest administrative officer of the Court - a description that belongs to the Secretary General, who heads the Registry. The pairing is attractive because statements 1 and 2 look like two ways of saying the same thing; they are not, and only the second of them is accurate.
- (b)1, 2 and 3 — This option includes statement 3, which is contrary to Article 124(7). That provision bars a person who has held office as a Judge of the Supreme Court from pleading or acting in any court or before any authority in the territory of India, without exception. The statement's formula - practice permitted in the Supreme Court alone - is a garbled version of the rule for retired High Court Judges under Article 220, who are barred from practice except in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. Transposing a rule from one office to another is a standard construction in these items, and checking which office an Article governs is the defence against it.
- (c)3 and 4 only — This option pairs the correct statement 4 with the incorrect statement 3. It is the more dangerous of the two options containing statement 3, because its other half is sound and lends it credibility. The constitutional bar is the point to hold: a retired Judge of the Supreme Court does not practise at all in India, which is the strictest of the post-retirement restrictions and is one reason such Judges are frequently appointed to tribunals, commissions and arbitrations, where the bar on pleading and acting in a court does not apply.
Concept
This item covers three separate parts of the law governing the Supreme Court, and each is worth holding on its own.
Administration of the Court. Article 146 governs the Court's officers and servants: appointments are made by the Chief Justice of India or such other Judge or officer as he may direct, and the conditions of service are prescribed by rules made by the Chief Justice, with the President's approval where expenditure is involved. The Registry itself is headed by the Secretary General, assisted by Registrars. So the power is the Chief Justice's and the office is the Secretary General's. Alongside that, the Chief Justice as master of the roster constitutes Benches and allots judicial work - an authority the Court has affirmed repeatedly.
Post-retirement practice. Article 124(7) bars a retired Judge of the Supreme Court from pleading or acting in any court or before any authority in India. Article 220 is different and less strict: a person who has held office as a permanent Judge of a High Court may not plead or act in any court or before any authority in India except the Supreme Court and the other High Courts. The two Articles are regularly confused, and every question in this area exploits that.
The Advocate-on-Record system. Under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 only an Advocate-on-Record may file a proceeding or act for a party in the Supreme Court. Admission to that roll requires training with an existing Advocate-on-Record and passing the Court's examination, and the holder must maintain a registered office within a prescribed distance of the Court. Senior Advocates, designated under section 16 of the Advocates Act, 1961 for ability and standing, argue cases but may not file them or appear without an Advocate-on-Record.
Polity questions on these papers are set on the working detail of institutions rather than on their outline - who appoints, who may appear, what a retired holder of an office may do - and the Supreme Court is the institution most often chosen.
This item has four statements rather than the three that are usual, and the stem asks which of them 'are correct', in the plural, so more than one is expected to qualify. That plural is a small piece of information: it rules out nothing by itself, but it confirms that a single-statement answer is not what the item is looking for.
The construction rewards working in a particular order. Statement 3 can be decided from the text of an Article and removes two options at once; statement 4 can be decided from a rule of court and removes a third. Only then does the fine distinction between statements 1 and 2 have to be faced, and by that stage the answer is already fixed - which is worth noticing, because that distinction is the hardest thing in the item and a candidate who begins with it will spend the most time on the part that turns out to be decided by elimination anyway.
Key facts
- Article 124(7) bars a person who has held office as a Judge of the Supreme Court from pleading or acting in any court or before any authority within the territory of India - a total bar, with no exception for the Supreme Court itself.
- Article 220 governs High Court Judges and is less strict: a retired permanent Judge of a High Court may not practise in any court or before any authority in India except the Supreme Court and the other High Courts.
- Under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 a senior advocate shall not appear without an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court, and may not file a vakalatnama or act for a party.
- Only an Advocate-on-Record, admitted after training and an examination conducted by the Court and maintaining a registered office within a prescribed distance of it, may file proceedings in the Supreme Court.
- Article 146(1) vests the appointment of the Supreme Court's officers and servants in the Chief Justice of India or such Judge or officer as he may direct, while the Registry itself is headed by the Secretary General, the Court's senior administrative officer.
Study next
Common traps
- Applying Article 220, which governs retired High Court Judges, to retired Supreme Court Judges; the two post-retirement rules are different and the milder one is regularly transposed onto the stricter office.
- Treating 'highest administrative officer' and 'holder of the administrative powers' as the same thing; the Registry is headed by the Secretary General while the powers under Article 146 are the Chief Justice's.
- Assuming that a Senior Advocate's standing dispenses with procedural requirements; designation confers the right to argue, not the right to file or to appear alone.
- Overlooking the plural verb in a stem that asks which statements 'are correct', which signals that more than one is expected to qualify.
- Starting with the most difficult statement instead of the most decidable one, when two of the four here can be settled directly from a constitutional provision and a rule of court.
Polity items on these papers are set on operative detail - who exercises a power, who may appear, what a person may do after leaving office - and the statements are built by transposing a rule from a neighbouring provision. Article 220 for Article 124(7), the powers of a Governor for those of the President, the jurisdiction of a High Court for that of the Supreme Court: the pattern is consistent enough to prepare for. The method that works is to attach each rule to the office it governs and to the Article that contains it, and, in a four-statement item, to work from the statements that can be decided against a text rather than from those that turn on a distinction of language.
Related PYQs
EPFO_APFC_2023_Q57Which of the following statements about curative petition is/are correct? 1. It can be entertained by the Supreme Court of India only. 2. It can be entertained by the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts of India. 3. Certification by a Senior Advocate is necessary to file a curative petition. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 3 only
- (c) 2 and 3
- (d) 1 and 3
Answer(d) 1 and 3
A statement set on the curative petition - that it lies only to the Supreme Court and requires certification by a Senior Advocate - covering the same territory of Supreme Court practice and procedure.
EPFO_APFC_2016_Q38Under the Constitution of India, which of the following statements are correct ? 1. The Constitution is supreme. 2. There is a clear division of powers between the Union and the State Governments. 3. Amendments to the Constitution have to follow the prescribed procedure. 4. The Union Parliament and the State Legislatures are sovereign. 5. The Preamble to the Constitution cannot be invoked to determine the ambit of Fundamental Rights. Select the correct answer using the codes given below :
- (a) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
- (b) 2, 3 and 4 only
- (c) 1, 4 and 5 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3 only
Answer(d) 1, 2 and 3 only
A five-statement item on the Constitution's basic features, including the division of powers and the amendment procedure, in the same adjudicate-each-statement format.
EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q40Which one of the following is not a constitutional body?
- (a) The Election Commission of India
- (b) The Finance Commission
- (c) The Official Languages Commission
- (d) The National Commission for Women
Answer(d) The National Commission for Women
Asks which body is not a constitutional body, an item that turns on the source of an institution's authority rather than on its importance.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
A retired Judge of a High Court may practise :
- (a)In no court in India
- (b)In the Supreme Court and in the High Courts
- (c)Only in the High Court from which he retired
- (d)In any court other than the Supreme Court
Answer(b) In the Supreme Court and in the High Courts - Article 220 bars a retired permanent Judge of a High Court from pleading or acting in any court or before any authority in India except the Supreme Court and the other High Courts. The total bar in Article 124(7) applies to retired Judges of the Supreme Court.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In the Supreme Court of India, a proceeding may be filed on behalf of a party by :
- (a)Any advocate enrolled with a State Bar Council
- (b)Only an Advocate-on-Record
- (c)Only a designated Senior Advocate
- (d)Any advocate with ten years of practice
Answer(b) Only an Advocate-on-Record - admission to that roll requires training with an existing Advocate-on-Record and passing the Court's examination, and a Senior Advocate may argue but may not file or appear without one.