Delhi High Court designates five as Senior Advocates

The Delhi High Court, today, confirmed the designations of five lawyers as Senior Advocates. The five are Rebecca John, Hariharan N, Sanjiv Sindhwani, Joy Basu, and Maninder Acharya. The official confirmations were received by the respective lawyers a week after the Full Court of the Delhi High Court made the final decision..N. Hariharan, enrolled in 1987, has built a practice on the criminal side. On his initial reaction to becoming a Senior Advocate, Hariharan told Bar & Bench that, “I am happy….but there will be a loss of business (laughs)”. Since a Senior Advocate is not permitted to directly interact with a client, Hariharan does see a definite change in his style of functioning. Hariharan also expects to spend more time on the study of law. “Being a Senior Advocate is an onerous responsibility”, said Hariharan, “After all, you can be asked to assist the Court on any point of time.”.Rebecca John, a graduate from the Campus Law Centre, Delhi University who enrolled in September 1988, worked in the chambers of noted criminal lawyer, Dinesh Mathur. Recounting her days as a woman lawyer appearing in criminal matters, John said that,.“It was such an unknown area for us (Neelam Grover and I). But I was never told that I should not practice in this field.” .John also said that a lot of women lawyers had congratulated her, more so for the fact that she was a criminal lawyer..“I think that was the important thing,” noted John..“I have consciously kept my practice within ethical limits and this [designation] shows that people like us can do well…we can succeed.”.Sanjiv Sindhwani, enrolled in 1987, practices in both the civil and criminal side. “Except revenue matters, I do nearly every other [type of] matter,” Sindhwani told Bar & Bench. When quizzed about his initial reaction to becoming a senior, Sindhwani said that this was a “huge responsibility”. Citing a natural aversion to publicity, Sindhwani declined to comment any further..On the new criteria for being designated a Senior Advocate (including the need to be recommended by five Senior Advocates), John said that it was good move since it “streamlined” the entire selection process..She admitted that while there had been a few designations that seemed surprising, the new criteria did a lot to decrease the arbitrariness in the matter.