SC notice on guidelines on senior designations to advocates
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on the application filed by senior advocate Indira Jaising seeking implementation of the court’s guidelines on conferring senior designations.
A bench comprising Justices Rohinton Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee issued notice to the registrar general of the apex court, returnable in four weeks, on the application filed by Jaising. The apex court would examine whether the process of designating senior lawyers begin with online interviews in terms of its 2018 guidelines.
In August, Jaising had moved the top court seeking proper implementation of the 2017 Supreme Court judgement, where it laid down the guidelines for the designation of lawyers as senior advocates, for a uniform and standardised process for conferment of the senior gown on lawyers in the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
Applications were invited by the committee for the designation of senior advocates in August of 2018. In March 2019, the first round of senior designations, in line with the new guidelines, finalised 37 applicants. However, in the past two years, applications have not been invited by the committee and the process has been frozen since then. “Many High Courts have dutifully implemented the judgment of this Court in Indira Jaising (matter). However, by initiating the senior advocate designation process only once, post August 2018, this court has failed to comply with its own judgment and 2018 guidelines. This inertia has adversely impacted several deserving members of the Bar, who are otherwise eligible to be designated,” said Jaising’s application.
In the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic, the application states that the initial process of the designation can be carried out in the electronic mode.