"No senior designations by Patna High Court in the last 5 years:" Plea in Supreme Court seeks directions to process applications for Senior gown

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to be issued to the Patna High Court to designate eligible lawyers practicing before the High Court as Senior Advocates in terms of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the 2017 case of Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court..The petition filed by advocate Sanjay Kumar, who practices before the High Court, has highlighted that no new senior designations have taken place at Patna High Court for the past five years..This he claims is adversely affecting the deserving lawyers practicing before the High Court besides being in contravention of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court..“The intervention of this Hon’ble Court is sought in view of the fact that no new senior advocate has been designated at the High Court of Judicature at Patna for over the last five years which is in contravention of the guidelines and norms laid down by this Hon’ble Court in the case of Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court,” the petition drawn and filed through advocate Pankaj Bhagat states..It is the petitioner’s case that the inordinate delay in the designation of Senior Advocates amounts to arbitrariness which in turn is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution which is the antithesis to arbitrariness.Various controversies had arisen in various High Courts regarding designation of Senior Advocates which eventually led to the Supreme Court taking up the issue of Senior designations and laying down guidelines to be followed by High Courts while conferring the gown..“The Hon’ble Supreme Court after considering the contentions raised by all the stakeholders framed and laid the law in the case of Indira Jaising Vs. Supreme Court…That the Hon’ble Supreme Court directed all the Hon’ble High Courts to formulate norms/guideline governing the exercise of designation of Senior Advocate by modifying the existing guidelines/norm by incorporating the guidelines provided by it in the said case,” the petition has said..Pursuant to the directions of the top court, the Patna High Court framed the High Court of Judicature at Patna (Designation of Senior Advocates) Rules, 2019.The Rules envisage a permanent committee of the High Court known as the "Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates" to consider and process the requests from lawyers for Senior designation..As per the Rules, the Committee has to meet at least once every year. Despite the same, no designations have happened in the last 5 years, the plea claims.The petition has also pointed out that the High Court did invite applications for senior designations in July 2019. Pursuant to that, 117 applications were received..The Registrar General of the High Court then published the 117 application summaries on the official web portal of the High Court. A time period of 30 days was also granted to the members of the Bar and others concerned for providing suggestions/ view/ objections.The said 30-day period expired on September 18, 2019, but not progress has been made thereafter, the petitioner has contended..The petition has, therefore, prayed for Supreme Court to intervene and direct the Patna High Court to designate eligible advocates as Seniors.