The Supreme Court is today going to consider around 200 applications for conferment of the Senior Advocate designation today.
The CJI added that the Court may rise early today on account of the same. This was conveyed by the CJI on Tuesday morning in open court.
CJI Chandrachud said that the matter willl be decided soon as it pertains to 200 candidates whom we are considering today for senior designation.
The CJI said that they need to rise early since the listing of cases for tomorrow also needs to take place.
In August last year the Supreme Court Bar Association had urged the CJI and other Supreme Court judges to adopt a liberal approach while designating deserving and meritorious advocates as Senior Advocates.
The association had emphasized that the senior designation process happened only once in the last eight years due to a judicial challenge, coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Supreme Court Advocate on Record Association (SCAORA) also had filed an application before the top court seeking a direction to the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates (CDSA) to conclude the process of appointing senior advocates with regard to applications that were invited in February 2022
Last year the senior gown was awareded to three retired High Court judges, namely retired Justice Talwant Singh, Justice Dr. S Muralidhar and Justice PN Prakash.
The top court in the year 2017,had laid down criteria for Senior designations, applicable to all courts under These guidelines were modified to a limited extent in May 2023 by the Supreme Court, when the Court upheld the interview criteria but reduced the points given for the number of publication as a criterion.
A three-judge bench said that voting for conferring the gown should not be done by secret ballot except in exceptional circumstances y the judges.
The Court also believed that the exercise of designating Seniors should be carried out at least once a year by the High Courts and the Supreme Court.