Yes — and I want to remove any residual doubt about this immediately, because clients sometimes tolerate inadequate representation out of an unfounded fear that changing lawyers will harm their case or make the judge suspicious. It will do neither. Your right to counsel of your choice is fundamental, expressly recognised in Indian law, and the court is entirely accustomed to changes of representation during ongoing proceedings.

The practical process is straightforward. As a professional courtesy under Bar Council norms, your current advocate is expected to issue a No-Objection Certificate enabling your new counsel to take over. If this is withheld for any reason, your new advocate can seek the court's leave to appear — so a departing lawyer cannot hold your case hostage. Once the new vakalatnama is filed, the transition is complete from the court's perspective. It is also prudent to settle any outstanding, undisputed fees to close that relationship cleanly, and — this is important — to ensure that the complete case file is handed over in good order: the chargesheet and accompanying documents, all court orders, prior applications and their results, witness examination records, and any evidence already exhibited. A gap in your file at a critical stage can cause a rushed or under-prepared appearance, so your new counsel should check the file is complete before the next substantive hearing.

When you switch representation, the standard practice is to request a short adjournment at the next date so your incoming lawyer can study the record properly. Courts in Kanpur's district courts grant this routinely and without adverse comment. The proceedings continue exactly from where they stand — nothing is reset or restarted — and the quality of your defence from that point forward is entirely a function of your new counsel's preparation. You can identify experienced criminal advocates through the Kanpur criminal lawyers panel at Aapka Legal Advice and arrange the file handover and transition in a single meeting.

The guiding principle is simple: your liberty and the quality of your defence matter more than the social awkwardness of changing lawyers. If your current representation is not serving you — whether because of poor preparation, lack of communication, a strategic disagreement, or loss of confidence — the right course is to change, professionally and promptly.