The Supreme Court (SC), in its full court meeting held recently, decided to confer senior designations on 47 former judges of the High Courts.
The candidates need to be at least ten years’ standing as an Advocate or ten years’ combined standing as an Advocate and as a District and session Judge or as a Judicial Member of any Tribunal in India to be designated as Senior Advocates at the SC.
They must practice mainly in the Supreme Court, but advocates with domain expertise in practising before specialised tribunals may be given concession.
The age limit for applying for the designation of senior advocate is now 45 years, unless the age limit is relaxed.
The age limit can be relaxed by the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates or if the name has been recommended by the Chief Justice of India or a SC judge.
The new guidelines have a revised point system for evaluating candidates.
The new criteria include the number of years of practice and the body of work.
Number of years of practice: Applicants will get a maximum of 20 points, 10 points for 10 years of practice, and 1 point each for every additional year of practice.
The selection for the designation of senior advocates will be done by the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates.
The Committee is headed by CJI as the Chairperson.
The applications will be invited once a year, and the committee will meet twice a year.
It will also have a permanent secretariat, whose members will be selected by the CJI and the committee.
