Litigation Management in CBEC- Appointment of Standing Counsels - VIP Reference?
THE qualifications for appointment as a Senior Standing Counsel:
1. He should be enrolled/registered as an advocate with the High Court
2. He should have a minimum experience of five years of handling preferably Customs and Central Excise and Service Tax matters before High Courts or Tribunals.
Experience in tax matters is not mandatory. In fact, many advocates with absolutely no idea as what Customs is all about have become Standing Counsels and represented the Government with aplomb in the High Courts. I asked a Standing Counsel how he was competent to defend the Government in Indirect Tax matters, when he had no experience or knowledge of the subject. He asked me, "When a person with absolutely no knowledge of tax matters can become a judge and decide taxation cases, what is wrong in my becoming a Standing Counsels?" Many Standing Counsels have indeed got promoted as High Court Judges.
The Standing Counsels have to defend the Revenue in high value cases and see the way they are selected and appointed. And now the Board has cancelled the appointment of 111 Counsels who all have at least three years' experience each. In these three years, they must have learnt some subject and so their appointment is not renewed and new lawyers are appointed.
VIP Reference: In its letter in F.NO.278A/21/2015.Legal, dated 18.06.2015, the Board informed the Chief Commissioners:
After the receipt of the recommendations made by you in response to the letter dated 7th March 2014, several VIP references have been received on the subject. These reference have been forwarded to you (concerned Chief Commissioners) from time to time. You may also take note of the said VIP reference and dispose them of while making the recommendations .
So, several VIPs have recommended candidates for appointment as Senior Counsels and the Board forwarded those references to the Chief Commissioners. The advocates who tried to use VIPs to procure the job of Standing Counsel should have been ab initio disqualified, but that seems to have been a factor in selection.
"What is wrong if a VIP recommends an eminently suitable candidate as Counsel?", you may ask. But in our country, recommendations are not made for eminently suitable candidates, but they are often made for totally worthless candidates.