The Top 10 advocates who have the highest number of appearances in the Supreme Court judgments of January 2023 are as follows:
1. Ashwani Kumar:
Advocate Shri. Ashwani Kumar was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India. As a legal counsel, has appeared in several important cases which include the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2002. In the month of January, he appeared in three civil appeal cases for which judgements were given by Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah. He has appeared on behalf of three petitioners respectively in the cases of “Delhi Development Authority versus Manpreet Singh” on 16-01-2023, “Delhi Development Authority Vice Chairman versus Shakuntla Devi” and “Delhi Development Authority versus Asha Prakash” on 20-01-2023.
2. Senthil Jagadeesan:
Advocate Shri. Senthil Jagadeesan is a New Delhi-based advocate who has appeared in three cases for which an order has been passed in the month of January. He has appeared as the Petitioner’s advocate for a Writ Petition case named “Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim versus Union of India” for which the order has been passed on 13-01-2023 and for two civil appeal cases namely, “Sabarmati Gas Limited versus Shah Alloys Limited” on 04-01-2023 and “K.L. Swamy versus The Commissioner of Income Tax on 13-01-2023.”
3. Chatanya Lakshmikumaran:
Advocate Smt. Charanya Lakshmikumaran is a Partner in the Commercial and Regulatory disputes practice at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan. She has previously worked in the chambers of the Attorney General of India and has over a decade of experience working in the fields of intellectual property, taxation, competition law and regulatory litigation. She has appeared in two civil appeal cases namely, “M/S Shekar Resorts Limited (Unit Hotel Orient Taj) versus Union of India” for which the judgment was given by Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah on 05-01-2023 and “Hewlett Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd. versus Commissioner of Customs (I) Nhava Sheva” for which judgment given by Hon’ble Justice Surya Kant on 17-01-2023.
4. Arvind Kumar Sharma:
Shri. Arvind Kumar Sharma graduated from Delhi University in the year 2004. He was also the former partner of S.M. Jadhav & Co. He has 18 years of experience in the field of law. His areas of practice are Constitutional law, arbitration, banking, service and consumer laws and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In January 2023, he appeared in a Criminal appeal case “The State through Central Bureau of Investigation versus T. Gangi Reddy @Yerra Gangi Reddy” and a Civil appeal case “Union of India versus Rajib Khan.” Judgments for both of these cases were passed by Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah on 16-01-2023.
5. Astha Tyagi:
Advocate Smt. Astha Tyagi was an Independent Legal Practitioner who is currently an Advocate-on-record in the Supreme Court of India. She graduated from Dr. Ambedhkar Government Law College in the year 1997. She also has a decade of experience as a Legal Associate, Special Consultant Advocate and Panel Advocate, appearing and arguing in matters across practice areas before various forums. She has represented clients ranging from Central and State departments to private individuals. She appeared in two Civil Appeal cases judged by Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah on 13-01-2023. Those cases are “Govt. of NCT of Delhi versus Sunil Jail” and “Govt. of NCT of Delhi versus Bhagrati.”
6. Nishit Agrawal:
Advocate Shri. Nishit Agrawal is a Supreme Court Advocate who is based in Wallis and Futuna, New Delhi. Finishing his B.A., LL.B (Hons.) degree at National Law Institute, Bhopal, he has specialized in Intellectual Property Lawyer. In the month of January, on behalf of the petitioners, he appeared in two civil appeal cases judged by Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah on 20-01-2023 namely “Delhi Development Authority versus Rambir” and “Delhi Development Authority V. Bhagi Singh.”
7. Malvika Kapila:
Smt. Malvika Kapila, advocate on record at the Supreme Court of India, has more than ten years of experience in dispute resolution and litigation. It also covers a range of civil and commercial matters including copyright, competition law, labour law and technology lawyer. She completed her law degree at the University of Warwick. She also obtained a Masters degree in International Relations. She represents her clients in several courts and tribunals and regularly liaises with reputed senior counsels for conducting proceedings. She appeared in two civil cases in January, “Delhi Development Authority versus Beena Gupta (D) Through Lrs.” dated 16-01-2023 and “Delhi Authority Authority versus Nem Chand Sharma” dated 20-01-2023.
8. Shri P. L Chidambaram, learned Senior Counsel ( Vivek Narayan Sharma Vs. Union of India)
– One of the landmark judgments in the month of january was the long going case of Vivek Narayan Sharma vs. Union of India also known as Demonetization Case, Shri P. Chidambaram appeared on behalf of petitioners for the case. In his appearance he countered the Government of India’s decision of 8th November 2016 that is demonetization of denomination of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. by exercising the power conferred by sub section (2) of section 26 which is also referred as “RBI act” 1934. In his submission he threw light on the correct interpretation of sub section (2) of section 26 RBI act in which the act does not permit the power to be exercised in relation to “all series ” of notes of a specified denomination . In his submission he said that the word ‘any’ will denote that only specific series of denominations can be demonitized using the powers.
9. Shri Shyam Divan ( Vivek Narayan Sharma Vs. Union of India ) –
Shri Shyam Divan learned Senior Counsel led the case on behalf of Malvinder singh on the land mark judgment on Demonetization case also submitted that irrespective of the guarantee given by the Central Government regarding the exchange of every note as legal tender , the issue department is also liable under section 34 of RBI act to “an amount equal to the total of amount of currency notes of government of india and bank notes in circulation time frame” He cited an article titled ” Using Fast Frequency Household Survey Data to Estimate the Impact of Demonetization on Employment” by Mr. Mahesh Vyas, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (2018) ” In support of his submissions.
10. Shri R. Venkataramani ( Vivek Narayan Sharma Vs. Union of India ) –
Shri R. Venkatarami learned that the Attorney General of India led the case on behalf of the union of India. In his submissions stated that the following action taken regarding the impugned notifications stands ratified by the 2017 act . Further it was stated that the executive action got validated by the will of the parliament the challenge to the same will not survive. He further cited some of the cases in support of his submissions i.e The Chief Inspector of Mines and another v. Lala Karam Chand Thapar etc., Banwarilal Agarawalla v. The State of Bihar and others15, Tej Kiran Jain and others v. N. Sanjiva Reddy and others etc.
Name of the Authors – Harishiri S. & Aryan Bhardwaj.