New Delhi: Supreme Court created history and appointed 11 women lawyers as senior advocates in a day. Previously, only 12 women lawyers have been given the status of senior advocates of the Supreme Court.
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 apex court administration on Friday 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 several media reports, 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.
The committee headed by the CJI interviewed 200 applicants after which the list designating 56 lawyers as senior advocates was released.
As per the rules framed by the Supreme Court under Article 145 of the Constitution, only advocates designated as advocate-on-record can file cases in the apex court, which conducts AoR examinations twice a year.
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