NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday conferred the designation of “senior advocate” on 56 distinguished lawyers, following a thorough selection process that focussed on including unprecedented number of women, first-generation lawyers and domain experts for bestowing the prestigious gown on a diverse set of practitioners of law.

The top court administration on Friday afternoon released the list of 56 lawyers, including 11 women and 34 first-generation lawyers, chosen for the designation by the committee for designation of senior advocates (CDSA), which is headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud. The other members of the CDSA comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bhushan R Gavai (two senior-most judges), attorney general R Venkataramani and senior advocate Kiran Suri (a nominated member of the Bar).

According to people aware of the matter, the committee followed a rigorous selection mechanism that considered the candidates on a range of factors, including total years of standing at the Bar, reported judgments, academic articles, publication of books and columns, guest lectures and pro-bono work. For marking the lawyers for their academic work, the CDSA sought the opinion of independent academicians.

While the committee received over 280 applications for the designation, 199 were called for an interaction with the members of the CDSA on January 16. The committee sat for over six hours on the day interacting with the applicants.

“An unprecedented number of women lawyers – 11, have been designated as senior advocates this year. It is more than all the women senior advocates, who have been given the designation till date, put together,” said the people cited above.

Some of the women lawyers figuring in the list included advocates Shobha Gupta, who represented Bilkis Bano in all her cases in the top court; Karuna Nundy, who has appeared in the same-sex marriage and marital rape cases; and Swarupama Chaturvedi, who has represented several state governments and the national child rights’ body.

The CDSA also wanted to promote the first-generation lawyers, said those in the know of the matter, adding “the idea was to send a message that the structure of the legal profession is changing and that those without access to the corridors of power in the Supreme Court have equal opportunities.”

Some of the first-generation lawyers in the list included Sunil Fernandes, Amit Anand Tiwari, Sanjay M Nuli, Shoeb Alam, Abhinav Mukerji and Joseph Aristotle and Shirin Khajuria. A total of 34 first-generation lawyers were designated as senior advocates.

This time, the CDSA has also designated several lawyers with domain expertise. Advocate Pratap Venugopal, who has expertise in tax laws; Sitesh Mukherjee, who has mastered litigation in telecom; and G Saikumar, who has expertise in electricity matters, among other, have been conferred the designation.

“Diversified allotment of the senior advocate gown was at the centre of the process,” said the people cited above, adding a great deal of emphasis was also laid on pro-bono work. Advocates Gaurav Agrawal and S Janani, who have assisted the court in a spree of matters as amicus curiae and as pro-bono lawyers, were among the lawyers designated on Friday.

Six lawyers made the cut though they were less than 45 – the minimum age prescribed under the guidelines for designation that can be relaxed in the wisdom of the CDSA in select cases. Advocates Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, Shailesh Madiyal, Saurabh Mishra, Nikhil Goel, Shikhil Suri and Archana Pathak Dave ranked among the list of under-45 lawyers designated as senior advocates.

The Supreme Court had last designated lawyers in December 2021.

The titles ‘senior counsel, ‘senior advocate, and ‘King’s counsel’ are traditionally bestowed on distinguished lawyers practising in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdictions who the court feels deserve such an honour and recognition owing to their exceptional competence, contribution to the development of law, advocacy, among other relevant factors.

Section 16 of the Advocates Act creates a class of “senior advocate”, who will be designated so by the constitutional courts by virtue of their ability, standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law. Section 23 (5) of the Act prescribes that senior advocates shall have pre-audience over other lawyers and their right of pre-audience inter se shall be determined by their respective seniority.