Ms. Indira Jaising vs Supreme Court of India, through Secretary General

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

12 May 2023

Case No.

Writ Petition (C) No. 454 of 2015

Bench

Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar

Citation

[2023] 5 S.C.R. 434 : 2023 INSC 524

Headnote

Advocates Act, 1961: s. 16 – Designation of Senior Advocates – Criteria for – Guidelines laid down in *Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India’s case, to bring in greater transparency and objectivity in the designation process of Senior Advocates – 2017 Judgment given effect by the Supreme Court Guidelines to Regulate Conferment of Designation of Senior Advocates, 2018 – Plea that the guidelines enumerated not exhaustive and require reconsideration by suitable additions/deletions – Held: Guidelines for designation of Senior Advocates modified as regards, voting by secret ballot, cut-off marks, the points assigned for publications, criteria on account of reported and unreported judgments, pro bono work, and the domain expertise of an applicant under various branches of law, the personal interview and other aspects – Supreme Court Guidelines to Regulate Conferment of Designation of Senior Advocates, 2018.

*Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India through Secretary General and Others, (2017) 9 SCC 766 : [2017] 10 SCR 478 – relied on.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J. History and rationale for designation of Senior Advocates in India: 1. The practice of having a distinguished class of senior pleaders with considerable status and experience in India can be traced back to legal practice in the United Kingdom. This category is said to have originated in the 13th century, as a distinguished class of senior pleaders known as Serjeants-at-Law. In the 18th century, selection in another such category, known as King’s/Queen’s Counsel became a matter of honour and a recognition of professional emin

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