'Some problems': SC agrees to hear pleas on lawyers' designation process

New Delhi, Aug 23 : The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider listing of petitions connected with conferring of senior designation to advocates by some high courts by using "arbitrary and discriminatory" secret voting as a norm.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana took note of submissions made by senior advocate Indira Jaising, who sought urgent listing of her miscellaneous application, alleging that some high courts have used secret voting process to confer the designation. Jaising filed a PIL in the top court and on her plea, the court had issued a slew of guidelines for designating lawyers as seniors in 2017.

The Chief Justice said: "There are some problems about senior designation in various courts... I want to take this up."

The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, cited the demise of senior advocate Soli Sorabjee, who was one of the members of the apex court's panel for taking initial decisions on applications of lawyers for grant of senior designation, and said that a new appointment has to be made. "You know one of our seniors Soli has passed away. We have to replace..," it said.

The Chief Justice added that the court will take up the matter. "Please give it some time," he said.

Jaising contended that the 2017 judgment by the top court requires to be worked out and the issue has been hanging fire for very long. The bench indicated that "some development" might take place in a week to two.

She submitted that designation of lawyers should be on the basis of marks given by the designated committee and the voting should be resorted to only when it is unavoidable. She further added that some of the high courts use the voting method as a norm and not an exception.

The top court, in the 2017 judgement, had laid down guidelines for itself and 24 high courts to govern the exercise of designating lawyers as seniors. For the apex court, it had said that a five-member permanent committee, headed by Chief Justice of India, should be set up for short-listing candidates for conferring senior designation.

The panel will be headed by the CJI and consist of two senior-most apex court judges or high courts, as may be," and the Attorney General or the Advocate General of a state in case of a high court will be its member, said the top court.