Today, On 15th April, The Supreme Court has told the Delhi High Court to review its earlier decisions on lawyers whose applications for Senior Advocate designation were rejected or kept pending. It also asked the court to form a new Permanent Committee to handle the selection process.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed the Delhi High Court to reconsider the applications of lawyers whose names were either rejected or deferred during the Senior designation process held last year.
A bench consisting of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued the order in response to a plea filed by Advocate Raman Gandhi, which sought to set-aside the November 2024 decision by the full court of the Delhi High Court that granted senior designation to only 70 out of the 302 candidates interviewed.
Also Read: Behind the Gown: The Rigorous Process of Senior Advocate Designation
The cases of 67 applicants were deferred.
The Supreme Court ordered the High Court to review the applications of both the rejected and deferred candidates in accordance with the existing rules. The Registrar General of the Delhi High Court was instructed to take steps to reconstitute the Permanent Committee responsible for Senior designations.
The Court ordered,
“The applications of the deferred and rejected applicants shall be placed before the Committee which shall be processed according to the rules of 2024. It may be done expeditiously,”
The senior designations awarded by the High Court in November 2024 came under scrutiny after Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, a member of the Permanent Committee, resigned, claiming that the final list was prepared without his consent.
The Permanent Committee is tasked with shortlisting candidates for designation, and this list is then presented to the full court for final approval.
This process is guided by the Supreme Court’s 2017 judgment in Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court.
On February 17, the Supreme Court issued a notice regarding the plea challenging the designations and requested a response from the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court.
The Court also sought a response from Nandrajog, who had stepped down from the Permanent Committee; he subsequently submitted his response in a sealed cover.
Also Read: Delhi High Court Revises Senior Advocate Designation Rules
During today’s proceedings, the Supreme Court questioned the urgency with which the process was concluded last year.
It remarked,
“What is the tearing hurry for designation? If we go into how the process was done, it will not meet any ends,”
Senior Advocates Siddharth Mridul and Vikas Singh represented the matter.
Case Title: Raman Alias Raman Gandhi v. Registrar General, High Court of Delhi, W.P.(C) No. 61/2025