As reported by Bar and Bench earlier, the Delhi High Court has designated 70 lawyers as Senior Advocates..The High Court's Secretariat of the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates released the official list today..The High Court interviewed 302 lawyers who had applied for the designation.The applications of those who scored between 65 to 69 marks have been deferred. This is first time that since March 2021 that the High Court has conferred the senior designation. In 2021, 55 lawyers had been given the senior gown.Pertinently, the Senior Advocate designation rules were amended in March 2024. As per the new rules under the High Court of Delhi Designation of Senior Advocate Rules, 2024, all matters related to designation of Senior Advocates are dealt with by a Permanent Committee. The Permanent Committee includes Chief Justice Manmohan, Justice Vibhu Bakhru, Justice Yashwant Varma, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, and Senior Advocates Mohit Mathur and Sudhir Nandrajog..The designation process has been mired in controversy, with one of the members of the Permanent Committee resigning over claims that the final list was prepared without his consent.Sources reveal that Nandrajog, also a representative of Delhi government, did not sign on the final list which was circulated to the full court for deliberation, as he was busy in an arbitration for two days. It is also claimed that it is not the list that was decided upon and that the original list has been tampered with.
