Supreme Court issues notice in Indira Jaising’s plea for stay on Senior Designations

Fate of Senior Designations in Supreme Court continues to remain indecisive after the Supreme Court today issued notice in a plea by Senior Advocate Indira Jaising to stay Senior designations..A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha issued notice to the Supreme Court Registrar General in Jaising’s interim application. The matter was earlier referred by the same Bench to a Constitution Bench..Jaising’s plea in this IA is to keep the designation of seniors on hold till the challenge made by her to the current method of designating seniors is decided. She has also pleaded that the Full Court’s opinion on the issue be made known..Jaising, in her application, has stated that the affidavit filed by the Secretary General of the Supreme Court on July 25, 2016 does not mention whether the contents of the affidavit were approved by the Full Court or reflects the decision of the Full Court..Besides that, she has also sought for a direction to maintain status quo on the designations by Supreme Court..Moreover, Jaising has also prayed that the High Courts be directed to send their extant rules, regulations and resolutions, if any, outlining their practice and procedure in the matter of designation of Senior Advocates..The Court today issued notice after Jaising mentioned that she was “being made to run from pillar to post” seeking listing of the matter..The notice is returnable within two weeks..In her application, Jaising has also relied on the survey carried out by Bar & Bench last year in which 56% of the participants had opined that the institution of Senior Advocate should be abolished.