SC orders fresh assessment for designation of senior advocates at Delhi HC
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the earlier committee conferred senior advocate designations without considering the marks one of its members awarded
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a fresh assessment of applications for the designation of senior advocates at the Delhi High Court as per the rules framed last year, saying the previous panel failed to factor in the marks one of its members awarded for the purpose.
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the earlier committee conferred senior advocate designations on 70 lawyers out of over 300 applicants. It added that the previous panel failed to consider the marks that senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, one of its members, had awarded. Nandrajog resigned in protest over this, a day after the list of newly-designated senior advocates was published in November last year.
“After having gone through the affidavit of Sudhir Nandrajog and the report of the registrar general, we find that [an] appropriate solution will be to direct the high court to consider the cases of deferred and rejected applicants in accordance with the existing Delhi HC [High Court] Senior Designation Rules, 2024,” the bench said.
Senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who appeared for the high court, said it was open to a “de novo or fresh” consideration of the rejected and deferred applications. He added that 67 of 302 applications for the senior lawyer designations were deferred.
The bench directed the reconstitution of a permanent committee comprising the Delhi High Court chief justice, two senior most judges, nominees of the Delhi government, a law officer of the Union government, and the Delhi High Court Bar Association chief to reassess the applications. “Applications of deferred and rejected candidates will be placed again before the permanent committee and shall be processed as per the 2024 Rules.”
The bench said the process should be completed as expeditiously as possible. It directed the Delhi government to nominate a lawyer for the committee within a week of receipt of such a request. The final list will be published after the committee’s assessment is shared with all high court judges.
The Supreme Court and the high courts designate senior advocates under the Advocates Act’s Section 16(2) with their consent based on their standing at the Bar, eminence, experience, and knowledge of law. In 2017 and 2023, the top court laid down a marking scheme based on years of experience, contribution to judgments, publications, domain expertise in law, etc, for conferring the senior advocate designation.
Raman Gandhi, who unsuccessfully applied for senior advocate designation, alleged that the Delhi High Court Bar Association had a role in clearing the names of even those lawyers who faced disciplinary proceedings. Another candidate requested the court to make the process time-bound by directing the full court to publish the list of senior advocates by July.
The Supreme Court questioned the hurry to get the designation. “We are looking at a solution.”
