No Senior Designations by Supreme Court from the Bar in the last three years

No lawyer has been made a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court for over three years now. The last time the Court made Senior designations was in April 2015.

Subsequently, a petition for streamlining the procedure for designating lawyers as Senior Advocates came to be filed in the Supreme Court. The Court then refrained from designating lawyers as Senior Advocates during the pendency of the case.

And though that case concluded last year, with a judgment being delivered on October 12, 2017, the Supreme Court is yet to make a move in this regard.

More than seven months have passed since then, and while the High Courts of Kerala and Punjab & Haryana have made Rules to bring the process of conferring the gown in consonance with the judgment of the Supreme Court, there is no indication of the same from the apex court itself.

The issue of Senior designations came to fore in 2015, when Senior Advocate Indira Jaising filed a petition in July 2015 seeking guidelines for designating lawyers as Senior Advocates. This petition was filed after the Supreme Court had designated five lawyers as Senior Advocates in April 2015.

In her petition, Jaising had questioned the discrimination meted out to capable advocates when it comes to “giving them the gown”. She had alleged violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution in the procedure followed for designating lawyers as Senior Advocates.

She had also contended that the method of designation by vote leads to unhealthy lobbying with judges and victimizes ethical lawyers who do not lobby. Further, in her petition, she had taken a dig at the current crop of Seniors who hold sway over the Supreme Court practice, alleging that lack of transparency has led to a monopoly of a few Senior Advocates at the Bar.

After the petition was filed by Jaising, the Supreme Court had refrained from making any Senior designations from the Bar. However, the automatic designation of retired High Court judges continued up until August 31, 2016, when that too stopped.

The reason for that might have been an order passed by the Supreme Court stating that it was the leaving same to the discretion of High Courts and the Supreme Court.

The Court then heard the case and reserved its verdict on August 29, 2017. Then Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Gaurav Bhatia spoke about applications for Senior designation that were pending before the court for two years. Justice Nariman, who was part of the Bench hearing the case, had stated that it will deliver the judgment soon, so that the process can be re-started immediately.

“That is why we are hearing the matter. So that we can give a judgment and re-start the process immediately”, he had remarked.

And true to his words, the judgment was delivered a little over a month later, on October 12.

However, the Supreme Court has failed to follow up on its own judgment. And it has been learnt that the Rules for Senior designation are yet to be framed/amended.

With the Court closing for the summer vacation in another two weeks, the process might now be initiated only after the court re-opens in July.