New Delhi: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Monday recused himself from hearing a plea of a lawyers’ body which has sought abolition of designation of advocates as seniors, on the ground that it leads to an “elite class” consisting of kith and kin.
A bench headed by Justice Gogoi on October 12, 2017 had delivered a judgement laying down guidelines for the Supreme Court and 24 High Courts to govern the exercise of designating lawyers as seniors, and had ordered setting up of a committee headed by the CJI, which would be assisted by a secretariat.
The lawyers’ body has sought re-consideration of the 2017 verdict saying that vesting the ultimate power in the matter of designation of lawyers as seniors with the full court of the apex court or the full courts of the high courts were detrimental to the independence of the Bar.
“I do not want to be part of the bench,” the CJI said moments after lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara began advancing arguments in the case.
