PIL in Madras High Court against age and experience

PIL in Madras High Court against age and experience

Five lawyers assert the Supreme Court guidelines be followed for the senior advocate designation

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was moved before the Madras High Court challenging the validity of Designation of Senior Advocates Rules, 2020. The rule prescribed 45 years as a minimum age for an advocate to be eligible for the designation of a senior advocate.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee revealed that a committee tasked to look into the matter would furnish its report in the coming weeks.

Five lawyers filed the PIL. They asserted that the provisions ran contrary to the Supreme Court Ruling in the Indira Jaising vs Supreme Court of India and the 2018 guidelines issued thereafter by the Supreme Court (SC) regarding designation for senior advocates.

The SC guidelines ruled that the minimum eligibility requirement was about experience or standing at the Bar, and not age. It pointed out that a person with 10 years at the Bar was eligible to apply for the designation of a senior advocate.

But in the case of Madras High Court, only those who fulfill the minimum age of 45 years are eligible to apply for the position of a senior advocate. In addition, he/she must have 15 years of combined experience as an advocate or as a District and Sessions Judge, or as a Judicial Member of a Tribunal.

Importantly, the other courts in the country have adopted 10 years of experience (or standing at the Bar) as one of the eligibility criteria instead of a minimum age/experience condition.

The PIL stated that the Madras High Court rules be tweaked so that advocates worthy of being designated as senior are not ignored or treated differently from others in the rest of the country.

The Tamil Nadu Advocates Association and the Bar Council of India were among those who flagged these concerns last year.