Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Delhi High Court's Decision To Confer Senior Designations On 70 Advocates

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a Writ petition which was filed challenging the Senior Designation of 70 advocates by the Delhi High Court.After a bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih expressed reluctance to entertain the petition, the petitioner chose to withdraw it.The petition was filed by Advocate Sanjay Dubey, an applicant for senior designation, who was denied the desigation by the Delhi High Court.He sought the quashing of the notification dated November 29, 2024, by which 70 Advocates were notified to be designated as Senior Advocates.The Permanent Committee of the High Court, which recommended the names for senior designation, comprised the then Chief Justice Manmohan, Justice Vibhu Bakhru, Justice Yashwant Varma, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog and Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur.Nandrajog resigned on the claim that the final list was drafted without his consent. The petitioner contended that this was a major anomaly which vitiated the process. The arguments raised for challenging the designations are:(1) The entire process involved up till the designation violated the rules notified on 14.03.2024 by the Delhi High Court pursuant to the judgment of this Court in Indira Jaisingh vs Supreme Court of India, where the Apex Court laid down fresh guidelines for the Senior Designation process; (2) The petitioner who was also a candidate was allegedly treated unfairly and unequally like several others of the total 303 applicants who applied for the designation; (3) Upon the resignation of one of the members of the 'Permanent Committee' for designation, Sr Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, the secretariat proceeded to finalize the recommendations without filling the vacancy which is against the rules. The plea highlights:(4) The marks assigned to the applicants called till the interview stage have not been disclosed either publicly or communicated privately; (5) The plea alleges that the Permanent Committee included the President of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) Sh. Mohit Mathur and several members from the executive committee of the DHCBA had applied for designation and were designated as Senior Advocates. It is further alleged that the list included names of advocates who were related to the current sitting High Court Judges.(6) List included Advocates below the age limit - the Committee has sent the list which had names of the advocates who had not reached the age of 40 years as of the date of the application, which is a mandatory eligibility criterion.Case Details : SANJAY DUBEY v. THE FULL COURT OF THE HON'BLE JUDGES OF THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI, THROUGH THE REGISTRAR GENERAL & ORS. | Diary No. 3045 / 2025 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Delhi High Court's Decision To Confer Senior Designations On 70 Advocates

Debby Jain

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