Supreme Court rejects plea alleging Delhi High Court yet to reconsider Senior designation applications

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition which claimed that the Delhi High Court had failed to comply with the top court’s earlier order directing it to reconsider the applications of lawyers whose names were either rejected or deferred in last year’s senior designation process.

The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi took exception to the filing of the petition by a lawyer.

"We do not expect members of the bar to generate litigation. Don't file these kind of petitions. Chief Justice committee is aware of it," CJI Kant said.

The Court added that most High Courts have already adopted or are in the process of amending their rules for senior designations in accordance with the Supreme Court’s judgments.

"We have no reason to believe that there will be inordinate delay by HC to comply with SC judgment. Dismissed," the Court ordered.

In April, a bench of Justice Abhay S Oka (since retired) and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan had directed 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 order had been on a 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.

The petition was filed after a controversy arose when one of the members of the Permanent Committee, Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, resigned over claims that the final list had been 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.