The Delhi High Court has designated 85 advocates as Senior Advocates, including 11 women, after the Full Court passed a resolution on July 9, 2026, clearing the names under Section 16(2) of the Advocates Act, 1961. The Secretariat of the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates issued the formal notification the same day.
85 Names Cleared From a Pool of 231
The Full Court's decision came at an evening meeting on Thursday, July 9, where judges considered a list forwarded by the Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates. According to multiple reports, 231 advocates had applied for the designation this year. The Committee screened and scored every application on parameters including litigation experience, reported judgments, legal acumen and contribution to the Bar. Of these, 86 candidates cleared the qualifying threshold, and the Full Court ultimately approved 85 of them — with only one qualifying name not making the final cut.
The official notification, No. 944/SAS/DHC, dated July 9, 2026, was issued by Registrar General Arun Bhardwaj on behalf of the Chief Justice, who acted pursuant to the Full Court's resolution.
Who Sat on the Committee
The Committee for Designation of Senior Advocates that screened this year's applicants comprised Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Justices V Kameswar Rao and Nitin Wasudeo Sambre, Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) President N Hariharan, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, and Senior Advocate Sanjay Jain. This panel structure - a mix of sitting judges, a Bar association representative, a government law officer and a senior member of the Bar - reflects the framework high courts have used since the Supreme Court's 2017 ruling in Indira Jaising v. Supreme Court of India, which introduced structured guidelines and a permanent selection committee for the designation process nationwide.
11 Women Among the New Silks
Eleven women feature on the list, translating to roughly 13 percent of the total designees. The women advocates named include Sangeeta Bharti, Abha Malhotra, Maneesha Dhir, Mamta Tiwari, Amrit Kaur, Beenashaw Nanda, Warisha Farasat, Rajeshwari N., Anju Bhattacharya, Kanika Aghotri and Manali Singhal.
Among them, Maneesha Dhir has built a practice in commercial and insolvency law, while Warisha Farasat is known for her work in human rights and criminal law. The inclusion of 11 women builds on a slow but steady trend toward greater gender representation at the senior end of the Delhi Bar. Last year's round of designations, held after nearly three-and-a-half years without a fresh list, had conferred the title on 70 advocates, including 12 women - meaning this year's cohort is larger overall even as the proportion of women designees has dipped slightly.
The new list also includes advocates recognised for specialised practice areas, among them cyber law specialist Pavan Duggal and Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad, alongside several long-serving standing counsels for government bodies.
What Senior Advocate Status Actually Means
A Senior Advocate designation is not a job title or a promotion in the conventional sense — it is a formal recognition conferred by a High Court or the Supreme Court under Section 16(2) of the Advocates Act, 1961, on the basis of "ability, standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law." The designation traces its lineage to the British "King's/Queen's Counsel" system, under which senior lawyers are distinguished from the rest of the Bar and permitted to wear gowns with a distinctive back flap.
The status comes with real professional trade-offs. Senior Advocates cannot file a vakalatnama, draft pleadings or affidavits, or accept a brief directly from a client. Under Bar Council of India rules, they must instead appear in matters only alongside another advocate acting as an advocate-on-record or as counsel on the state roll — restrictions intended to formalise their role as court advisers and arguing counsel rather than case managers.
A Process Under Continuing Scrutiny
The framework governing these designations has evolved considerably over the past decade. The Supreme Court's 2017 Indira Jaising judgment forced transparency into what had long been an opaque process, mandating a permanent committee and a points-based evaluation system. A follow-up ruling - Indira Jaising-II in 2023 - clarified that secret ballot voting by the Full Court should be the exception rather than the rule. More recently, in 2025, a bench headed by Justice Oka signalled a departure from parts of the Jaising-era reforms, and commentators have flagged ongoing debate over whether criteria such as years of practice unfairly reward longevity over merit. Delhi High Court's own designation process operates under the High Court of Delhi Designation of Senior Advocate Rules, 2024, framed under the same Section 16(2).
Conclusion
Thursday's decision adds 85 new names to Delhi's roster of Senior Advocates, the single largest round of designations conferred by any Indian high court in recent memory, and one that modestly expands the representation of women at the top tier of the Bar even as it reopens familiar questions about how the honour is earned.
11 Women Advocates Designated as Senior Advocates
11 Women Advocates Designated as Senior Advocates
- Abha Malhotra
- Amrit Kaur
- Anju Bhattacharya
- Beenashaw Nanda
- Kanika Agnihotri
- Mamta Tiwari
- Manali Singhal
- Maneesha Dhir
- Rajeshwari N.
- Sangeeta Bharti
- Warisha Farasat
List of 85 Advocates Designated as Senior Advocates
- Abha Malhotra
- Abhimanyu Mahajan
- Aman Sareen
- Amar Nath Saini
- Amir Zorawar S. Pasrich
- Amit Gupta
- Amit Prasad
- Amrit Kaur
- Anju Bhattacharya
- Ankur Chhibber
- Ankur Mittal
- Anupam S. Sharma
- Arjun Mitra
- Arvind Kumar
- Atul Nagarajan
- Bahar Uddin
- Beenashaw Nanda
- Dalip Kumar Malhotra
- David Robin Ratnakar
- Deepak Chopra
- Deepak Dhingra
- Devendra Kumar
- Dhanesh Relan
- Gaurav Mitra
- Hossain Zoheb Molazzem
- Hrishikesh Baruah
- Jai Kumar Mittal
- Jagdev Singh
- Jagjit Singh
- Jaspreet Singh Rai
- Jayant Tripathi
- Jugal Kishore Wadhwa
- Kailash Chand Mittal
- Kamal Mehta
- Kanika Agnihotri
- Kuljeet Rawal
- Kunvar Jatinder Cheema
- Mamta Tiwari
- Manali Singhal
- Maneesha Dhir
- Manish Kumar Bishnoi
- Monazir Ahsan Niyazi
- Murari Tiwari
- Navin Kumar
- Neeraj Chaudhari
- Neeraj Grover
- Niki Kantawala
- Nitesh Kumar Rana
- Om Prakash
- Pavan Duggal
- Prashant Mehta
- Prosenjeet Banerjee
- Rajat Aneja
- Rajeev Kumar Awasthi
- Rajesh Mahajan
- Rajesh Mohan
- Rajeshwari N.
- Rakesh Khanna
- Dr. Rakesh Kumar Dhawan
- Dr. Rakesh Kumar Gupta
- Ramesh Babu M. R.
- Ranvir Singh
- Samar Bansal
- Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra
- Sangeeta Bharti
- Sanjay Lao
- Sanjiv Bahl
- Sanjeev Bhandari
- Sanjeev Mahajan
- Santosh Kumar
- Satyakam
- Saurav Anand Prakash
- Shailesh Kumar Kapoor
- Shanker Raju
- Shri Singh
- Sonal Kumar Singh
- Subedar Singh
- Sujoy Chander Kumar
- Sunil Kumar Sharma
- Tanoodbhav Singhdev
- Tejpal Singh Kang
- Varun Goswami
- Vipul Virender Ganda
- Vishal Gosain
- Warisha Farasat
