Gujarat High Court during a full-court meeting designated 12 lawyers as senior advocates on Tuesday. A notification in this regard has been issued by registrar general HD Suthar.
The list includes assistant solicitor general Devang Vyas and public prosecutor Mitesh Amin. The other advocates, who got the seniority tag, include Satyajeet Desai, Jal Unwalla, Asim Pandya, Hasmukh Parikh, Bharatkumar Patel, Iqbal Syed, Maulin Raval, Gautam Joshi, Mahendrakumar Gandhi, and Tushar Hemani.
Seeking recognition of their superior ability, standing at the bar, and reputation among the legal fraternity, 32 advocates of the high court had in January applied before the high court administration for being designated as 'senior advocate'.
Although the high court has a strong bar of over 2,000 lawyers, there were only 43 designated senior advocates practicing in the court so far. With the addition of 12 senior advocates to the list, the total tally of senior advocates has now touched 55.
While the senior advocates 'officially' do not have any specific advantage, their status is reflected in the respect and recognition they command from the bar and the bench. Also, senior advocates often charge higher fees than other advocates.
