An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, in Scottish, Manx, South African, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Polish, Israeli, South Asian and South American jurisdictions, "advocate" indicates a lawyer of superior classification.
Justice Vaidyanathapuram Rama Iyer Krishna Iyer was an Indian judge who became a pioneer of judicial activism. He pioneered the legal-aid movement in the country. Before that, he was a state minister and politician.
The Attorney General for India is the chief legal advisor of the Government of India. The Attorney General is appointed by the President of India at the instance of the Union Cabinet under Article 76(1) of the Constitution and hold office during the pleasure of the President. The Attorney General must meet the qualifications necessary for an appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court. Therefore, the Attorney General should have served as a judge in a high court for a minimum of five years, or as an advocate in a high court for at least ten years. Alternatively, the President may consider an individual as eligible for the role if they are deemed an eminent jurist.
Gopal Ballav Pattanaik is an Indian lawyer and later a jurist who served over a period of 19 years in the bench of the Odisha High Court as a permanent judge, as chief justice of the Patna High Court, Judge of the Supreme Court of India and as the 32nd Chief Justice of India.
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, AM was an Indian jurist who served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004. In 2002, he received the Padma Vibhushan for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights.
The Government Law College, Mumbai,, India, founded in 1855, is the oldest law school in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra.
Hans Raj Khanna was an Indian judge, jurist and advocate who propounded the basic structure doctrine in 1973 and attempted to uphold civil liberties during the time of Emergency in India in a lone dissenting judgement in 1976. He entered the Indian judiciary in 1952 as an Additional District and Sessions Judge and subsequently was elevated as a judge to the Supreme Court of India in 1971 where he continued till his resignation in 1977.
Ashok H. Desai was an Indian lawyer, practising in the Supreme Court of India. He held office as the Attorney General of India from 9 July 1996 to 6 May 1998. Earlier, he was the Solicitor General of India from 18 December 1989 to 2 December 1990. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan award and the Law Luminary Award in 2001. He was given an honorary doctorate in "recognition of his contribution to the field of law and jurisprudence" by the North Orissa University in September 2009.
Fali Sam Nariman was an Indian jurist. He was a senior advocate to the Supreme Court of India from 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. Nariman was an internationally recognised jurist on international arbitration. He was honoured with the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2018. He was one of India's most distinguished constitutional lawyers and argued several leading cases. He was the Additional Solicitor General of India from May 1972 to June 1975.
Pavani Parameswara Rao was a Senior Advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India. Widely considered a doyen of Constitutional Law, he had argued a number of landmark cases before the Supreme Court. He died on 13 September 2017 in a private hospital in South Delhi following a cardiac arrest, India.
Keshava Parasaran is a lawyer from India. He was Advocate General of Tamil Nadu during the president's rule in 1976, Solicitor General of India under the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and Attorney General of India under Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi between 1983 and 1989 until the end of Rajiv's tenure. Parasaran was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the year 2003 and Padma Vibhushan in the year 2011. In June 2012, he received a presidential nomination to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament, for a period of six years. He is a member of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. In 2019 the Central Government appointed him to lead the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra. However later, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was appointed to lead the trust. The trust oversaw the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Sidharth Luthra is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India. In July 2012, Sidharth Luthra was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India at the Supreme Court and represented the union and various state governments in matters relating to fundamental rights, electoral reforms, criminal law and policy issues. He resigned from this position in May 2014. He is the son of K.K. Luthra who was also a senior advocate and brother of senior advocate Geeta Luthra.
Sharad Arvind Bobde is an Indian judge who served as the 47th Chief Justice of India from 18 November 2019 to 23 April 2021.
M.N.Krishnamani was a senior counsel practicing at the Supreme Court of India and a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association of India.
Mukul Rohatgi is an Indian lawyer and designated senior counsel, and was the 12th Attorney General for India. He was succeeded by K. K. Venugopal, whom he was also offered to succeed to hold the position again, but he declined. He had a tenure of three years as Attorney General, from 19 June 2014 to 18 June 2017. He is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India. He has also served earlier as Additional Solicitor General of India.
The National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was a proposed body which would have been responsible for the recruitment, appointment and transfer of judicial officers, legal officers and legal employees under the government of India and in all state governments of India. The commission was established by amending the Constitution of India through the 99th constitution amendment with the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 or 99th Constitutional Amendment Act-2014 passed by the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014 and by the Rajya Sabha on 14 August 2014. The NJAC would have replaced the collegium system for the appointment of judges as invoked by the Supreme Court via judicial fiat by a new system. Along with the Constitution Amendment Act, the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, was also passed by the Parliament of India to regulate the functions of the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The NJAC Bill and the Constitutional Amendment Bill, was ratified by 16 of the state legislatures in India, and subsequently assented by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 31 December 2014. The NJAC Act and the Constitutional Amendment Act came into force from 13 April 2015.
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) &Anr. vs. Union of India &Ors. (2017), commonly known as the Right to Privacy verdict, was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of India, which held that the right to privacy is protected as a fundamental right under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The original petitioner Justice K.S. Puttaswamy was former judge of the Karnataka High Court
R. Venkataramani is an Indian constitutional lawyer and a Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of India. He is currently serving as the 14th Attorney-General for India. He was appointed as a Member, Law Commission of India in 2010. He has been appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu as a Special Senior Counsel for the past 12 years and also acting as Special Senior Counsel for the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Saurabh Kirpal is an Indian lawyer, author and a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court. He is also an LGBTQ rights activist.
Gopal Sankaranarayanan is an Indian lawyer practicing at the Supreme Court of India. He was designated as a senior advocate by the Supreme Court of India in March 2019. He is known for his specialization in Constitutional law. He served as the secretary of the Lodha Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2015 to bring about reforms in cricket administration in India. He has provided assistance to the Supreme Court as an Amicus curiae in numerous cases. In April 2022, the Supreme Court appointed him as Amicus curiae to assist in the finalization of the Constitution of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
