Supreme Court issues guidelines for conferring lawyers with senior designation

Ten months after its verdict the Supreme Court today notified its guidelines for according senior designation to lawyers and constituted a fivemember permanent committee headed by Chief Justice of India to shortlist the candidatesThe 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 guidelinesThe 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 seniorsThe 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 candidatesThe 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 seniormost judges of the apex court the Attorney General as members and a member of the Bar as nominated by the Chairperson and other membersThe committee can suo motu recommend a lawyers name for designation as senior as well as interested advocates can also submit their application for the designationThe 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 unavoidableIf 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 readIt said that an advocateonrecord or advocate seeking conferment o senior gown will have to submit an application in the prescribed format to the SecretariatThe notification says that every year in the month of January and July the Secretariat will invite such applications and at least 15 days time shall be given to file the applicationsOn receipt of applications from advocates advocatesonrecord or suomotu application by CJI or any Supreme Court judge the Secretariat will compile the relevant data including integrity reputation conduct participation in probono work judgments in which the concerned candidate appeared etc the notification saidIt also said that a lawyer shall not be eligible for designation as Senior Advocate unless he or she has 10 years combined standing as an advocate or a District and Sessions Judge or as a judicial member of any tribunal in India or has been a Chief Justice or a judge of a High CourtThe Secretariat will also publish the proposal for designation of the candidate on the Supreme Court website inviting suggestions from stakeholdersThe Committee will interact with advocates and make an overall assessment and list the names cleared by it to go to the full courtThe notification made it clear that the names of the judges and Chief Justices of the high court will go directly to the full court for considerationThe final decision of the Full Court will be communicated individually to the applicantsIn case of any misconduct the full court may review its decision to designate the person and may recall the same the notification said The person concerned will be given an opportunity to be heard before any action is taken in this regard it addedCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever