A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s decision to designate 70 lawyers as Senior Advocates.
The plea was on Monday mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna for urgent listing. The CJI refused to list the matter, stating that oral mentioning would not be allowed in the Apex Court.
The petitioner was asked to circulate a letter seeking listing of the matter.
On November 29, the High Court had conferred the senior gown to 70 lawyers, after interviewing more than 302 candidates, following the new rules under the High Court of Delhi Designation of Senior Advocate Rules, 2024.
As per the new rules under the High Court of Delhi Designation of Senior Advocate Rules, 2024, all matters related to the designation of Senior Advocates would be dealt with by a Permanent Committee.
A list of candidates was prepared by the Secretariat of the Permanent Committee, compiling their data and past records. Apart from the interview component, the Permanent Committee assessed the candidates on several factors such as number of years of practice, pro bono work, publications, etc.
The decision courted controversy after one of the members of the Permanent Committee resigned over claims that the final list was prepared without his consent.
The Permanent Committee consisted of Chief Justice Manmohan, Justice Vibhu Bakhru, Justice Yashwant Varma, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, and Senior Advocates Mohit Mathur & Sudhir Nandrajog.
As per sources, Nandrajog, also a representative of the Delhi government, did not sign on the final list, which was circulated to the full court for deliberation, as he was busy in arbitration for two days.
It was claimed that this was not the list decided upon and that the original list had been tampered with.