The Allahabad High Court has allowed the impleadment of the 75 newly designated senior advocates in the case challenging their designation process.
Days after 75 lawyers were designated as Senior Advocates by the Allahabad High Court, an Advocate, Vishnu Bihari Tiwari had filed a writ petition contending that the selection norms put in place by the Supreme Court were ignored in the senior designation process adopted by the High Court.
A Division Bench of Justices Shashi Kant Gupta and Pankaj Bhatia were informed on Thursday by Tiwari’s counsel, Advocate Ashish Misra, that the newly designated Senior Advocates have not been made parties in the case.
In response, the Bench allowed the plea for one week’s time to implead the Senior Advocates concerned. An order passed to this effect states,
“As prayed by the petitioner, he is granted one week’s time to implead all the Advocates, who have been designated as Senior Advocates in the array of the respondents.”
Further, the Court also allowed the plea for four weeks’ time for the Allahabad High Court authorities to file their counter affidavit. The rejoinder thereto is to be filed within two weeks thereafter. The Senior Advocates concerned have also been permitted to file their counter affidavits.
While doing so, however, the High Court rejected the petitioner’s prayer for an interim order in the matter. The case is expected to be listed next in July.
Similar challenges are also pending before the Karnataka High Court, the Delhi High Court and the Calcutta High Court. The Calcutta High Court had even directed amendments to the guidelines notified in July 2018. The Delhi High Court recently scrapped the rule regarding joint proposal by Senior Advocates as a prerequisite for applying for the Senior gown.
Another petition pending before the Supreme Court challenges the Senior Designation guidelines notified by twenty-four high courts across the country.
Read the Order:
