Designation as Senior Counsel: Indira Jaising v/s SC of India (SC 2017)

In a Mumbai courtroom, a senior advocate in a black gown rises and the room goes quiet. Every young advocate wonders the same thing: how did she get that gown, and could I ever have it? For decades the answer was “the judges decide, and nobody quite knows how”. In 2017 the Supreme Court, in a case brought by a senior advocate herself, decided that an opaque answer was not good enough.

In two minutes

Section 16 of the Advocates Act, 1961 lets the Supreme Court or a High Court, with the advocate’s consent, designate an advocate as a senior advocate for ability, standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law; in Indira Jaising v Supreme Court of India (2017) the Supreme Court laid down guidelines to make that designation transparent and objective.

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