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Synopsis

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court of India challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision to designate 70 lawyers as Senior Advocates.

On Friday, after nearly 3.5 years, Delhi High Court designated 70 lawyers, including 12 women, as senior advocates. 

Yesterday, the plea was mentioned before Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for urgent listing who refused to do so, stating that oral mentioning would not be allowed.

The senior designation was conferred by a permanent committee comprising Chief Justice Manmohan, the next two senior most judges of the High Court, Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and senior advocates Sudhir Nandrajog and Mohit Mathur evaluated the candidates.

High Court's decision has been under the spotlight since one of the members of the Permanent Committee resigned over claims that the final list was prepared without his consent.

Allegedly, Senior Advocate Nandrajog did not sign on the final list, which was circulated to the full court for deliberation, as he was busy in arbitration for two days.

Furthermore, the controversy centers on claims that the final list that was presented for the full court’s approval had been altered, deviating from the original list that the committee had intended.

It is being suggested that the original list, which was more thoroughly vetted and approved by the Permanent Committee, was tampered with or modified before it reached the full court for consideration.