A Joint Committee of Parliament has ruled that MPs appearing as ‘Senior Advocates’ for Central and State Governments does not come under Office of Profit.
The Committee was examining a question raised by AIADMK member
A Navaneethakrishnan whether an MP appearing as senior advocate on behalf of State or Central Government, public sector undertakings, panchayats, nationalised banks, municipal corporations, co-operative banks etc would amount to holding Office of Profit or not.
To clear the air, the Committee went by the definition of senior advocate as defined in The Advocates Act 1961 which prescribes that senior advocates cannot sign vakalatnama for appearance directly with litigant, accept any brief or payment from the client directly, and cannot appear in court without an advocate on record.
The Committee felt that several elements like the power to appoint, dismiss, control, give direction as to the manner in which the duties of the office are to be performed, and determine question of remuneration are not present in this case.
"Accordingly, the principle of Privity of Contract is lacking between senior advocate and litigant. As such there are no ingredients of `office' for senior advocate under the State/Central Government, local authorities," the Committee said in its report.