Let’s start with a simple
question, So Mahatma Gandhi was Barrister? no he was a Lawyer? He was an
Advocate? or was an Attorney? Hey everybody! In today's blog we will learn
about the commonly used terms and difference between them and I promise by the
end of this blog you will be able to understand all these terms easily and you
will also able to understand when to use these terms and when not If any doubt
comes in your mind while reading this blog, please let me know in the comments
section
The first two terms are Lawyer
and Barrister Firstly we will understand about Lawyer, whom we call as Vakeel
also Basically Lawyer is a person who has studied law means a law graduate So
the person who has law degree, whether of 3 years LLB course or 5
years.
Lawyer
That person becomes lawyer but
being only a lawyer can you represent any client in the court and can you argue
for their case in the court? No, you can't represent them in court or argue.
Barrister
The 2nd term Barrister is also
similar to this If you have studied law in India, you become a Lawyer and if
you have studied law in England, you become Barrister Only the terms are
used differently but the meaning of both is same and similar to the Lawyer,
Barrister also can't represent clients in the court, they can't argue on any
case
Enrolment in Bar Council
When a Lawyer enroll himself with
the Bar council, then he becomes Advocate we also call them as "Adhivakta"
So if you have completed law, then you have to give Bar Council of India Exam
after passing the exam you will enroll there and you will get the license of
practicing in court and you will get promoted from Lawyer to Advocate So
basically if any person introduce himself as an Advocate it means that he has
the license to practice and he can represent their client in the court
basically this is the difference between a Lawyer and an Advocate
A Lawyer has only law degree he
cannot argue in the court Where as an Advocate is enrolled with the Bar council
and he has the license to practice in the court.
Advocate, Senior Advocate and Advocate on Record
We will look at the three terms
used for this also Advocate, Senior Advocate and Advocate on Record We learned
about the Advocate, they can represent clients in the court and can practice
Now who is Senior Advocate? This designation is given by Supreme court/ High
court to those Advocates who has good amount of knowledge and experience means
who has practice experience of more than 10 years and have appeared in
many cases and how many cases are in their favour, by seeing all these it is
decided. once who become Senior Advocate, they wear different gown and coat
and their fees also becomes expensive basically this designation of Senior
Advocate is given on the basis of their special knowledge and experience now
comes Advocate on Record (AOR) Do you know? That only an (AOR) can case
a file in Supreme Court Generally every court has its rules, functions and
procedures similarly Supreme court has its own rules so if everyone will
approach Supreme Court, then there is probability that court's time will be
wasted
So that's why those who are
registered on (AOR) only those Advocates can file a case in Supreme Court.
Any one can draft a case and can argue as well only for filing the case this
requirement or restriction is there, that it should it done only by an (AOR)
because they know the functions and rules of the Supreme Court You have pass
Supreme Court AOR exam to become and AOR The eligibility required for the
SC AOR exam is one should have experience of more than 5 years and these 5
years is divided as (4 +1 year) means 4 years’ experience of any court plus
1 year practice experience under any AOR of Supreme Court and that AOR must
have practice experience of more than 10 years So this was the difference
between an Advocate, Senior Advocate and Advocate on Record Now we will discuss
about Advocate general which we also call as Mahaadhivakta Every state's
Governor appoints Advocate General for their state If state Govt. needs
representation in the court in any matter.
Advocate General's job
Then Advocate General's job is to
represent State govt. in the court So Advocate General represents all the cases
of State Govt. because they represent state govt. in court they are called as 1st
Law Officer of the State and if state govt. needs any legal advice in any matter,
they also play role as Legal Advisor of State.
Attorney General
Now we will discuss about Attorney General
which we also call as "Mahanyayvaadi" We previously saw that
Advocate General represents state govt. in the court and that's why they are
known as 1st law officer of the state Similarly Central Govt. is represented by
Attorney general so their job is to deal cases of Central govt. and represent
them in the court and that's why they are known as 1st Law officer of the
country they are appointed by President of India so basically
Attorney general's job is to represent Central govt. and look after their
cases and if Central govt. needs any legal advice on any matter, then they
take advice from the Attorney general.
Solicitor general
After that comes Solicitor
general whom we also called as 2nd Law officer of the country Solicitor
general helps Attorney general in his tasks and work that's why he is known
as 2nd law officer of the country.
Society [(Criminal and Civil Cases), (Public Prosecutor)]
Now we will learn about 2 more
terms Imagine you have completed your law and got registered in BCI as well
and now you are willing to do something for society (social service)
In that case what can you do? Our system says that if a crime is committed
against any individual then it will be accepted as a crime committed against a
state.
For example - A committed
crime against B now B will file a case against A but now State will handle the
case of B Why? because the crime was committed against the state it will be
considered as a crime against society and now comes your role You can represent
state in Criminal cases and can also represent in Civil cases. Let’s
talk about criminal cases first you may have seen the majority of criminal
cases like if we talk about Nirbhaya Rape Case the name of the case was Mukesh
and Anrs. vs. NCT Delhi (2017)
So, offenders vs Victims
here the State is named as victim so when you represent state in criminal cases
means when you represent victim's side through state then you will be known as Public
Prosecutor and if you represent state in the civil cases, you will be known
as Government Pleader So basically if you represent victim's side in criminal
cases you will be called as Public prosecutor and when you represent state in
civil cases you will be called as Govt.
Pleader in different states and
UT's their hierarchy is also different their appointment system and even terms
also different in different states and UT's I guess this basic is enough for
this blog.
Quick Revision
let’s do a quick revision of it
First is Lawyer, this is the person who has completed LLB and has degree. He is
known as Lawyer. The person who has studied law in England and
has LLB degree that person is called as Barrister. They both has a Law
degree but both of them cannot represent clients in the court. So, this
was the difference between them after that comes Advocate So the Lawyer who has
cleared the Bar council exam and got registered and has the license
to practice in the court, that person is known as Advocate. So, the
lawyer cannot represent the client where as an Advocate has the license to
practice and represent the client
So this was Advocate We have learned about 2 types of Advocate one is Senior Advocate and the other one is AOR Senior Advocate is a person gets designated by High court/Supreme court after years of experience and knowledge and we learned about the special power of AOR as he is only person who can file cases in Supreme court now we will revise about Public Prosecutor they are the person who represents victim's side in a criminal case now let’s discuss about Advocate general So if in any case state govt. needs representation in the court this job is done by Advocate general and if Central govt. needs representation in the court this is the job of Attorney general to represent them Solicitor general is the person who assists Attorney general So this was today's Blog in which we discussed all these terms I hope if you have any confusion in the beginning of the video related to these terms it would have cleared very easily till end of the blog and now you won't call any person with wrong terms and still if you have any confusion, you can ask me in the comments section.
