Meghalaya HC’s Senior Designation of Delhi based lawyers challenged in Supreme Court [Updated]

After the controversy surrounding Senior designations and the subsequent PIL filed by Indira Jaising, the apex court is now hearing another plea on this practice. This one stems from the Megahalaya High Court..However, this time, the controversy has another interesting face to it – the designated lawyers are said to be based out of Delhi, and do not practice in the Meghalaya High Court..In the petition filed by the Shillong High Court Bar Association, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice JS Khehar and C Nagappan J. proceeded to issue notice today..Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora appeared for the petitioner Association..The matter has its genesis in the designation of a Delhi-based advocate in 2014 by the Meghalaya High Court. The designation was allegedly made in violation of the Rules framed by the High Court itself..Things did not end there, as two more Delhi-based lawyers were made seniors a year later. This time, however, the High Court amended the criteria prescribed by the Rules, allegedly to facilitate the designations..While the Rules initially mandated a 5-year practice in the Meghalaya High Court for an advocate to be eligible for designation, this was later amended to 10-year practice in any court in India. Another major change to the rule was that any 3 lawyers could recommend an applicant’s name for the gown, as opposed to the earlier condition, which required that the recommending lawyer should also be from Meghalaya High Court..The petitioner has sought quashing of the three designations, as well as the Rules framed by the High Court..When the matter came up for hearing today, the Bench had a brief discussion and proceeded to issue notice even before Meenakshi Arora could make her submissions..Justice Khehar said that the case deserves to be heard, while remarking in jest as to why Arora “was bringing all the important cases” to the court..The High Court of Meghalaya was established in March 2013 and has only three judges. Currently, Justice Nandakumar Singh is the acting Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court, taking over from Justice Uma Nath Singh who retired a week back..[Read the 2015 notification designating 4 lawyers as Senior Advocates here. Two out of the four are allegedly based in Delhi].Read the 2014 notification designating 3 lawyers as Senior Advocates here. The petitioner has alleged that one of these three lawyers was given the gown though he did not fulfill the criteria set by the High Court.]