Karnataka high court advocate TN Raghupathy has filed a writ challenging the designation of 15 new senior advocates at the HC this year, tweeted BurgerrB and reported Bar & Bench.

Raghupathy, who has impleaded the 15 senior advocates in the PIL, has argued that the HC’s senior designation process, which requires incumbents to file an application, is contrary to Section 16 (2) of the Advocates Act 1961.

“The petitioner states that since ‘Senior Advocate’ is an honor bestowed on an advocate by the High Court, filing of an application by the concerned advocate would rather disqualify him for being considered for the said honor. The petition also challenges the use of a simple majority to decide designations, arguing that S. 16(2) requires a decision to be made by a Full Court,” according to Bar & Bench’s report.

Raghupathy also prayed for making designations at the district court level and argued:

“[In a] long career of more than 39 years as an advocate he has come across number of brilliant lawyers from mofussil courts who should have been honored by designating them as senior advocates. This could have been possible if the High Court had adopted the practice of gathering information from Principal District Judges of each district.”

The writ WP 35106/2014, filed on 22 July, is still pending admission.