The Supreme Court in the case Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India & Ors, wherein an Advocate-on-Record Association has filed an application in the Supreme Court urging to direct the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates to fasttrack and for completing the process of designating senior advocates being pursuant to applications received in February 2022.
An intervention application has been filed by SCOARA in the plea filed by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising in 2015, wherein seeking reforms in the senior designation process. In the present case, the said application has been filed through Advocate-onRecord Devvrat, wherein pointing out that in violation of the Guidelines of the Supreme Court to Regulate Conferment of Designation of Senior Advocate’, after the court concluded the previous ground of designation in 2019, the exercise was not started afresh till February 2022.
The Clause 4 of the said Guidelines wherein it is provided that the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates (“CDSA”) shall meet at least twice a year. The plea filed states that it has been provided under clause 8 that each year in the month of January and July, the Secretariat of the CDSA shall invite applications from Advocates or Advocates-onRecord for seeking designation as Senior Advocate.
Therefore, under the guidelines Of Supreme Court in 2018, the process of designation as Senior Advocate is required to be undertaken twice a year.” The Apex Court in 2018 framed the guidelines after certain objective criteria for senior designations, being applicable to all the High Courts and the Supreme Courts in the case Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India, wherein being pursuant to the Indira Jaising verdict and the 2018 Guidelines, SCAORA has revealed, the process of designation has been initiated by the Supreme Court in 2018 which was completed in 2019.
Therefore, the court issued the notice inviting the applications was issued only on 25.02.2022, that is being after the gap of four years. Since then, almost one year has been elapsed and the said process is not yet concluded by the court. Therefore, the same caused anxiety amongst the members of the lawyers’ association. It has been claimed by the petitioner while urging the Supreme Court to enjoin the designation committee to conclude that the current process of designation at the earliest and without causing any further delay.
