Permanent Committee to designate senior advocates: SC

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday said that a permanent committee headed by the Chief Justice of India will henceforth decide on the designation of lawyers as senior advocates.

A top court bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi in its judgment said that besides the Chief Justice, the committee would also have two senior-most judges after him as it's members.

Attorney General and a nominee of the Supreme Court bar would also be the part of the committee that would have a permanent Secretariat.

The top court has already laid down the criteria for designating senior advocates. It includes the performance of the lawyers, number of cases done pro bono, area of specialisation, and personality.

All the applications for the designation as senior advocate would be made to the Secretariat which after processing them would put it on its website for inviting suggestions.

After processing and short-listing the applications, the Secretariat would place final list before the permanent Committee.

Then the permanent committee would call the aspirant lawyers for designation as senior for interviews and personality tests.

In case of misconduct warranting divesting a senior lawyer of his senior designation, the decision would be taken by the full court.

The court verdict came on a plea by senior counsel Indira Jaising who had sought the laying down of the criteria for designation of advocates as senior advocates.