The Supreme Court has recently issued detailed guidelines to enhance the efficiency and organization of filing written submissions and compilations, especially before constitution benches and during significant final hearings. According to these guidelines, the bench will, in advance, “nominate nodal counsel” who can be an Advocate-on-Record (AoR) or an advocate from both parties. This nodal counsel’s primary responsibility will be to
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and to compile and electronically file five systematically indexed volumes.
The volumes are as follows:
- Volume I will contain the “Written submissions of petitioners or appellants.”
- Volume II will house the “Written submissions of respondents.”
- Volume III, titled ‘Documents’, will encompass “pleadings, affidavits and orders which are a part of the record but compiled for convenience of reference.”
- Volume IV, named ‘Statutory enactments and research material’, will include “statutes, rules, regulations, legislative debates, reports of Commissions and other material such as research articles.”
- Volume V, dedicated to ‘Precedents’, will feature judgments. These can be “organized either by topic or chronologically, as determined by the nodal counsel.”
Moreover, for counsels referencing international cases, they are mandated to
“furnish the nodal counsel with PDF copies of decisions relied upon.”
It’s also emphasized that it’s
“essential to attach neutral citations alongside the provided documents.”
The last three volumes, namely Volumes III, IV, and V, will consist of materials that both parties rely upon. However, any additions to these volumes, whether they are
“additional written submissions, documents, statutory material, or precedents,” can only be incorporated with the “Court’s permission.”
This structured approach by the Supreme Court is a significant step towards ensuring a more organized, transparent, and efficient method for handling written submissions, guaranteeing that the Court and the involved parties have streamlined and easy access to all pertinent documents during crucial hearings.
