Supreme Court orders Delhi High Court to reconsider deferred, rejected Senior designations

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Delhi High Court to reconsider the applications of those lawyers whose names were either rejected or deferred in the Senior designation process held last year..The bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order on plea filed by Advocate Raman Gandhi seeking quashing of the November 2024 decision by the full court of the Delhi High Court to confer senior designation only on 70 lawyers out of the 302 candidates interviewed. The cases of 67 applicants had been deferred. Today, the top court ordered the High Court to consider the cases of the rejected and deferred candidates in accordance with the existing rules.The Registrar General of Delhi High Court was directed to take steps for reconstitution of the Permanent Committee for Senior designations. "The applications of the deferred and rejected applicants shall be placed before the Committee which shall be processed according to the rules of 2024 It may be done expeditiously," the Court ordered. .The senior designations made by the High Court in November 2024 became mired in controversy after one of the members of the Permanent Committee, Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, resigned over claims that the final list was prepared without his consent.The Permanent Committee is a body which shortlists the candidates to be designated. This list is then sent to the full court, which takes the final call.This process has been put in place in terms of the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court in Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court.On February 17, the Supreme Court issued notice on the plea challenging the designations and sought the response of the Delhi High Court's Registrar General.Notably, the Court had also sought the response of Nandrajog, who had stepped down from the Permanent Committee. Nandrajog then filed his response in a sealed cover..Senior Advocates Siddharth Mridul, Vikas Singh appeared in the matter. .[Read Order]