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The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued fresh guidelines for conferring the Senior Advocate designation on lawyers, removing the marking system from the current process.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice SVN Bhatti granted four months to all High Courts across the country to amend the existing rules, in accordance with its latest verdict.
The Apex Court said the decision to confer the Senior designation should be taken by either the Full Court of High Courts or this Court. The applications of all candidates found to be eligible by the Permanent Secretariat, along with relevant documents submitted by the applicants, should be placed before the Full Court.
Though the endeavour should always be to arrive at a consensus, in case a consensus on designation was not reached, the decision should be taken by adopting the democratic method of voting, it directed.
The Apex Court said it would leave it to the High Courts to take a call on whether they should avail the option of a secret ballot, considering the facts in a given case.
The Bench held that the minimum qualification of 10 years of practice did not need any reconsideration.
Permitting the advocates submitting applications for senior designation to continue their practice, the top court of the country said that the same could be treated as the consent of these lawyers. The Full Court may also consider and confer the designation without an application, it added.
It further clarified that there was no scope for individual judges to recommend a candidate for designation.
On March 20, the Apex Court had reserved its verdict in the matter that stemmed from a convict’s plea seeking remission in a kidnapping case.
During the hearing of the kidnapping case, the top court of the country decided to take up the larger issue of false pleadings being signed off by Advocates-n-Record (AoRs) after finding that certain facts had been suppressed in the convict’s appeal.
The Bench further expressed its reservations against the conduct of Senior Advocate Rishi Malhotra in the case and decided to look into the process of designating lawyers as Senior Counsels.
The process to confer the senior designations was put in place by the Supreme Court and various High Courts, following the Apex Court’s 2017 verdict on a petition filed by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising seeking greater transparency and objectivity in senior designations.
At least four High Courts had earlier submitted their suggestions on the issue.
The Apex Court on Tuesday said that one exercise of designation should be undertaken every year, adding that the process of designations already initiated should continue on the basis of earlier decisions delivered in Indira Jaising cases.
The Bench, however, clarified that any new process for designations shall not be initiated unless the High Courts framed new rules in accordance with the guidelines issued today.
Even this court would have to undertake the exercise of amending the rules and guidelines in the light of this decision, it added.
The Bench stressed that every endeavour must be made to improve the senior designation system by periodically reviewing the process.
This article first appeared on India Legal
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