SC asks for circulation of letter for early listing of plea on senior designation of advocates

The Supreme Court on Monday asked lawyers to circulate a letter seeking an early listing and hearing of a plea challenging senior designations conferred on advocates by the Delhi High Court.

Recently, the Delhi High Court designated 70 lawyers as senior advocates and it was conferred after a permanent committee comprising Chief Justice Manmohan, Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma and others evaluated the candidates.

The process ran into a controversy when senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, who was also part of the high court committee, resigned over claims that the final list was prepared without his consent.

On Monday, the plea was mentioned before a top court bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar for an early hearing.

The CJI asked the lawyer to circulate a letter seeking a listing instead of an oral mention.

The CJI has recently stopped the practice of oral mention by lawyers to seek early listing and hearing of fresh cases.

Those designated as senior advocates include Santosh Tripathi, Anurag Ahluwalia, Rajdipa Behura, Anil Soni, Anupam Srivastava, Abhijat, Sumeet Verma, Amit Chadha, Sumeet Pushkarna, Sai Deepak J and Arundhati Katju.

According to sources, the committee evaluated over 300 advocates, except three lawyers whose applications for senior designation have been deferred for now.