Madras High Court says ‘no’ to reservation for women in designation of a lawyer as ‘Senior Advocate’

Justices M. Sundar and N Sathish Kumar state that the designation is not a post but only a privilege and honour conferred on individuals based on merit irrespective of gender

Designation of a lawyer as ‘Senior Advocate’ is not a post but a privilege and honour conferred upon a member of the Bar purely on merit, ability, and his/her successful career, irrespective of gender. Therefore, such a privilege cannot be conferred through reservation, the Madras High Court has held.

Justices M. Sundar and N. Sathish Kumar held so while dismissing a writ petition filed by advocate S. Lawrence Vimalraj of Madurai, seeking 50% or at least 30% reservation for women lawyers in the designation. The judges held that the litigant had no locus standi to file the case since he was not an aggrieved party.

The Bench pointed out that the litigant himself had clarified in his affidavit that he had not filed the case as a public interest litigation petition and also conceded that he was not an applicant for being designated as ‘Senior Advocate’. It meant that he was not an aggrieved person whose rights had been affected, it said.

Despite not finding any reason to entertain the writ petition on the preliminary ground of locus standi, the judges dealt with the merits of his contentions, too, and gave their findings. Authoring the lead verdict for the Bench, Justice Sundar held that the petitioner’s plea for reservation for women had no legs to stand.

He pointed out that a total of 161 lawyers had applied pursuant to notifications issued by the High Court in 2020 (99 names) and 2022 (62 names) calling for applications for the designation. Of the 161 applicants, only nine were women. Two of those women applicants did not attend an interaction with a committee headed by the Acting Chief Justice.

“This leaves us with seven women candidates. When there are only seven women candidates out of a total of 161 candidates, even on a demurrer, the plea for 50% or at least 1/3rd reservation for women has no legs to stand,” the judge wrote. He also highlighted that all nine women had applied only after accepting the rules which do not provide for reservation.