SC to see if verdict on guidelines for senior advocate designation needs revisiting

New Delhi, Feb 16 The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will examine whether its 2017 verdict, which laid down guidelines for it and the high courts to govern the process of designating lawyers as senior advocates needs to be revisited.

A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said: "Let us confine it to whether that judgement needs revisiting and if yes, to what extent."

The bench, also comprising Justices Manoj Misra and Aravind Kumar, added that the scope really is whether the judgment needs some modifications or not.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, on whose petition the 2017 verdict was delivered, contended that every high court is adopting a different procedure and stressed that there should be some uniformity in the process. Other counsel in the matter cited the process adopted by some high courts on designating lawyers as senior advocates.

The bench orally observed that it cannot have supervisory jurisdiction over the high courts and added: "You say this is the concern of the bar. All of us have been part of the bar."

After hearing arguments, the bench scheduled the matter for further hearing on February 22.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that the government will file an application in the matter. The top court clarified that it is at this stage only addressing the issue arising from the judgment which gave liberty to revisit on the basis of experience so far and noted that Mehta will be filing an application "setting out the experience so far".

The top court was hearing a batch of pleas raising issues about designating lawyers as senior advocates.

The apex court, in May last year, had modified one of its earlier directions and said the lawyers be allocated one mark each for a year of practice from 10 to 20 years, when considered for designation as senior advocates.

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