SC designates 7 ex-HC judges, 18 lawyers as senior advocates

New Delhi, Dec 11:  The Supreme Court has designated seven former judges from various high courts and 18 lawyers as senior advocates.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and the judges of the Supreme Court in a full court meeting held on December 8, decided to designate 7 former chief justices/judges of high courts, and 18 advocates-on-record as senior advocates with effect from December 8.

In the judge's category, former high court judges are -- Dr JN Bhat, Surendra Kumar, SK Gangele, Vinod Prasad, L Narasimha Reddy, AIS Cheema, and Naushad Ali. Justice Gangele, who retired in July, 2018 faced sexual harassment allegations during his tenure in the Madhya Pradesh High Court by a district court judge.

In the lawyers' category, those designated senior advocates by the full court, are Ravi Prakash Mehrotra, SN Bhat, Dr Krishan Singh Chauhan, Vishwajit Singh, DN Goburdhun, Vijay Punjwani, Pradeep Kumar Dey, ADN Rao, Rachna Srivastava, Anil Kumar Sangal, Rajiv Nanda, Arunabha Chowdhury, Ravindra Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Manoj Goel, Yadavilli Prabhakar Rao, G Umapathy, and P Niroop.

The full court took the decision to grant senior advocate under Section 16 of the Advocates Act, 196. In 2018, fresh guidelines were framed for conferring the designation after the apex court's judgement in Indira Jaising's case on October 12, 2017.

According to the fresh norms, a permanent committee is set up with a secretariat headed by Chief Justice, or chief justice in case of high courts, two senior most judges with Attorney General/Advocate General. This committee would nominate a bar member, to scrutinise the candidates, conduct interviews and award points. After the completion of this process, the matter is referred to the full court.

The decision on the designation of lawyers as senior advocates, prior to 2017 judgment, was taken by adopting a secret voting among the judges and by the rule of majority.