The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Advocate Padmesh Mishra in response to a plea contesting his appointment as an Additional Advocate General (AAG) to represent the State of Rajasthan before the Supreme Court.

A Division Bench comprising Justices Inderjeet Singh and Mukesh Rajpurohit sought Mishra's reply, directing, “Notice issued to respondent no. 2 returnable in the first week of July.”

Mishra, son of sitting Supreme Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, was appointed AAG on August 23, 2024. The appointment was challenged by Advocate Sunil Samdaria, who contended that Mishra lacked the requisite 10 years of legal practice as mandated under Clause 14.4 of the Rajasthan State Litigation Policy, 2018. According to the petition, Mishra has been practicing since his enrollment in 2019, amounting to only five years of experience.

A single-judge bench of Justice Sudesh Bansal had dismissed the plea on February 4, ruling that the Litigation Policy constitutes executive guidelines rather than binding law, and that the 10-year experience requirement was not mandatory. The judge also declined to invalidate Clause 14.8 of the policy, which permits appointments based on expertise at the discretion of a competent authority, noting that it was an executive decision beyond judicial review absent strong evidence.

Following this decision, Samdaria filed an appeal. The case was initially listed before Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, who recused himself on March 3.

In the ongoing appeal, Samdaria has reiterated his argument that Clause 14.8 is arbitrary and undermines the rest of the policy. He alleged the clause was introduced to facilitate Mishra's appointment and described it as “as arbitrary as it could be.”

Advocate Sunil Samdaria appeared in person. Additional Advocate General Bharat Vyas represented the State.