Supreme Court of India On Friday 19, January, has conferred the prestigious title of ‘Senior Advocate’ to 56 lawyers, marking a notable inclusion of 11 women in this elite group. This event is particularly noteworthy as it follows a considerable gap since the last such designation, which occurred in December 2021 when 18 lawyers were honored with this distinction.
The process of designating senior advocates had seen a slowdown in recent years, with a notable hiatus due to judicial challenges and the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had led to a situation where, over the past eight years, such designations were exceptionally rare, occurring only once.
In response to this, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had, in August of the previous year, made a strong appeal to the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court. The SCBA urged for a more liberal approach in recognizing deserving and meritorious advocates with the senior designation. This call for action highlighted the need for acknowledging the professional excellence of lawyers who had been awaiting this honor.
It’s also important to note that, in the interim periods of May 2022 and October 2023, the Supreme Court had conferred the senior gown on retired High Court judges, including Justices Talwant Singh, Dr. S Muralidhar, and PN Prakash. However, during these rounds, no practicing lawyers were awarded the senior designation.
The lawyers who have been conferred the gown are:
1. Gaurav Agrawal, Advocate-on-Record
2. Shobha Gupta, Advocate-on-Record
3. Sitesh Mukherjee, Advocate
4. Amit Anand Tiwari, Advocate-on-Record
5. Saket Singh, Advocate
6. Amar Pradeepbhai Dave (Amar Pradeep Dave), Advocate
7. Devashish Bharuka, Advocate-on-Record
8. Swarupama Chaturvedi, Advocate-on-Record
9. Dr. Aman Mohit Hingorani, Advocate-on-Record
10. Abhinav Mukerji, Advocate-on-Record
11. Saurabh Mishra, Advocate-on-Record
12. Nikhil Goel, Advocate-on-Record
13. Sunil Fernandes, Advocate-on-Record
14. Sujit Kumar Ghosh, Advocate
15. Shikhil Shiv Madhu Suri, Advocate
16. Liz Mathew (Anthraper), Advocate-on-Record
17. Sanjay Upadhyay, Advocate
18. Sudhanshu Shashikumar Choudhari, Advocate-on-Record
19. Karuna Nundy, Advocate
20. Pratap Venugopal, Advocate-on-Record
21. Gagan Gupta, Advocate-on-Record
22. Raghenth B (Raghenth Basant), Advocate
23. Tapesh Kumar Singh, Advocate-on-Record
24. Nisha Bagchi, Advocate
25. Rauf Rahim, Advocate-on-Record
26. PB Suresh, Advocate-on-Record
27. Uttara Babbar, Advocate-on-Record
28. Dr. Joseph Aristotle S, Advocate-on-Record
29. Sridhar Potaraju, Advocate-on-Record
30. Haripriya Padmanabhan, Advocate
31. Dr. KB Sounder Rajan, Advocate-on-Record
32. G. Saikumar, Advocate
33. Anand Sanjay M. Nuli, Advocate
34. Senthil Jagadeesan (Senthil J.), Advocate-on-Record
35. Deeptendra Narayan Ray, Advocate
36. Mohd. Shoeb Alam, Advocate-on-Record
37. Pijush Kanti Roy, Advocate
38. Archana Pathak Dave, Advocate-on-Record
39. NS Nappinai, Advocate
40. Anil Kaushik, Advocate
41. S Janani, Advocate-on-Record
42. Naresh Kaushik, Advocate
43. Ananda Padmanabhan, Advocate
44. Dr. Jose Porathur, Advocate
45. Uday Gupta, Advocate
46. Shridhar Yeshwant Chitale, Advocate
47. Anant Vijay Palli, Advocate
48. Rupesh Kumar, Advocate-on-Record
49. Sanjay Vasantrao Kharde, Advocate
50. V Prabhakar, Advocate
51. Abhijeet Sinha, Advocate
52. Arvind Kumar Sharma, Advocate
53. Shailesh Madiyal, Advocate-on-Record
54. Shirin Khajuria, Advocate-on-Record
55. Raghavendra S Srivatsa, Advocate-on-Record
56. Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, Advocate-on-Record
This recent designation of 56 lawyers as senior advocates, therefore, marks a significant move by the Supreme Court, addressing the long-standing requests of the legal community and reflecting a commitment to recognizing legal excellence in India.
Also read- Supreme Court Criticizes Madhya Pradesh Police For Protecting Goons Over Victims (lawchakra.in)
