Supreme Court flags concerns over 2019 Allahabad High Court Senior designations

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Allahabad High Court on a plea challenging the Senior Advocate designations conferred by the High Court in 2019..A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan raised concerns over deviation from the norms established in the landmark Indira Jaising judgment after noting that the High Court had upheld a unilateral decision of its permanent committee modifying the points system. "The High Court in its own wisdom has modified Indira Jaising," the bench said. .The petition before the Supreme Court, filed by advocate Vishnu Bihari Tiwari, challenged a September 2024 judgment of the Allahabad High Court that upheld the 2019 designations. The High Court had dismissed Tiwari’s plea, observing that no senior designations had taken place since 2019 and that the petitioner, not being shortlisted based on the reduced cut-off, lacked the locus standi to challenge the designations..The controversy stemmed from the decision of the High Court’s permanent committee which resolved to consider advocates who scored 45 out of 75 points for Senior designation rather than adhering to the 100-point framework laid down in the Indira Jaising case. Of the 78 names sent to the full court, 75 were conferred the gown.The Allahabad High Court held that the permanent committee’s decision to forward only selected applications to the full court was permissible under Indira Jaising (2017), which allows High Courts to frame their own criteria for shortlisting candidates. It further held that the requirement for interviews was discretionary, not mandatory, and that challenges to the designations on this ground could only be brought by candidates who had been shortlisted but not designated, a category that did not include the petitioners..The Supreme Court, while issuing notice, expressed concern over this departure from the established norms, particularly the reduction in maximum marks, and sought a response from the High Court.The bench also recounted that it had recently dealt with a similar issue concerning Senior designations in the Delhi High Court, where issues had arisen in the November 2024 designation process. In that matter, the same bench had asked the Delhi High Court to reconsider the cases of rejected and deferred candidates.The Justice Oka led bench has also reserved judgment on a broader challenge to the Indira Jaising guidelines in a separate case.