New Delhi, Aug 7: Ten months after its verdict, the Supreme Court notified its guidelines for according ‘senior’ designation to lawyers and constituted a five-member permanent committee headed by Chief Justice of India to shortlist the candidates.
The names will then be sent to the Full Court, comprising all the apex court judges, for a decision. The candidates will have to file an application or the committee can also recommend a candidate to the full court on its own, according to the guidelines.
The apex court has notified the norms in pursuant to its judgement on October 12, last year by which it had laid down guidelines for itself and 24 high courts to govern the exercise of designating lawyers as seniors.
The committee which will meet twice a year in January and July will have a permanent secretariat which would facilitate collating the details of the probable candidates.
The finalised guidelines are titled “Supreme Court Guidelines to regulate Conferment of Designation of Senior Advocates, 2018”.
Besides the Chief Justice of India as Chairperson, the permanent committee will have two senior-most judges of the apex court, the Attorney General as members and a member of the Bar as nominated by the Chairperson and other members.
The committee can suo motu recommend a lawyer’s name for designation as senior as well as interested advocates can also submit their application for the designation.
The guidelines said that all the names cleared by the permanent committee will be forwarded to the full court and the full court will not resort to voting by secret ballot unless it is unavoidable.
“If the Chief Justice or any other judge is of the opinion that an advocate by virtue of his standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law is deserving of such distinction, the Chief Justice/ judge may, in writing, recommend the name of such advocate for being considered for designation as Senior Advocate,” the notification read.
