The Supreme Court of India on Friday designated 56 lawyers as senior advocates. Of these, 11 are women, including Bilkis Bano’s lawyer Shobha Gupta.
Shobha Gupta is a senior lawyer who mainly works in women’s rights cases. He won a Supreme Court victory in the gang rape and murder case against Bilkis Bano, which was committed during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The status of Senior Advocate is an honorific title awarded to the most senior lawyers in India. This status gives them top priority and greater authority in cases in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, in a judgment in 2023, had revised its guidelines for the ‘Senior Advocate’ designation to make the process transparent and fair. This is the first time since then that advocates have been nominated.
More than 280 lawyers had applied for the designation. Out of them, 200 lawyers were shortlisted for interview. Many of them are first-generation lawyers.
Successful lawyers include:
- Additional Advocate General of Tamil Nadu Amit Anand Tiwari
- State panel lawyer Joseph Aristotle S.
- Gaurav Aggarwal, who has been an amicus curiae of the apex court in several important cases like Ajmal
- Kasab’s death plea, COVID orphans issue and Maradu flat demolition in Kerala
- P.B. Suresh, a lawyer who has argued against the electoral bond scheme and who has appeared for devotees in the Padmanabha Swamy temple case
- Karuna Nandy, who appeared as one of the petitioners in the gay marriage case
- Raghenth Basant, who appeared for medical students who fled Ukraine and wanted to continue their education in India
- Liz Mathew, who was the standing counsel for Kerala
- Mo. Shoaib Alam, who appeared for a student in the Karnataka hijab case
- Sunil Fernandes and others
