THE
JHARKHAND GAZETTE
EXTRAORDINARY
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY
3 AGRHAYAN 1947 (S)
RANCHI MONDAY 24th November, 2025
HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND, RANCHI
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NOTIFICATION
24th November, 2025
No. 10 / 2025 /R&S--
THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND (DESIGNATION OF
SENIOR ADVOCATES) RULES, 2025
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 34(1) read with section
16(2) of the Advocates Act, 1961 and in accordance with the guidelines
laid down by the Supreme Court of India in its judgment dated
13.05.2025 in Criminal Appeal no. 865 of 2025, the High Court of
Jharkhand hereby makes the following rules for designation of an
advocate as a Senior Advocate and matters incidental thereto.
1. Short title and commencement -
i. These Rules shall be called ‘The High Court of Jharkhand
(Designation of Senior Advocates) Rules, 2025’.
ii. These Rules shall come into force on the date of its notification
in the Official Gazette of the State of Jharkhand.
No. 518
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
2. Definitions- In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) “Advocate” means an Advocate entered in any roll under the
provisions of the Advocates Act, 1961;
(b) “Permanent Committee” means the Permanent Committee for
Designation of Senior Advocates constituted under sub-rule (1) of Rule
3 of these Rules.
(c) “Court” includes any authority exercising judicial powers in the
State of Jharkhand.
(d) “High Court” means the High Court of Jharkhand.
(e) “Roll” means the roll of Advocates prepared and maintained under
the
Advocates Act, 1961;
(f) “Secretariat” means the Secretariat established by the Chief Justice
of the High Court of Jharkhand under sub-rule (2) of Rule 3 of these
Rules.
3. Constitution of the Permanent Committee:
(1) The Permanent Committee shall be headed by the Chief
Justice and consist of –
(i) The Chief Justice of High Court of Jharkhand - Chairperson
(ii) Two senior-most Judges of the High Court - Member
(2) The Permanent Committee shall have a Secretariat. The
Secretariat of the Chief Justice shall be the Secretariat of the
Permanent Committee and the Registrar General of the High Court of
Jharkhand shall be the ex-officio Secretary of the Permanent
Committee.
(3) The Permanent Committee shall meet at least once in a
Calendar year.
4. Qualification for Designation of an Advocate as a Senior
Advocate.-
(i) The Full Court of High Court of Jharkhand is of the opinion that an
Advocate by virtue of his ability and standing at the Bar or special
knowledge or experience in law is deserving of such distinction so as
to be designated as Senior Advocate.
Explanation: The expression “standing at the Bar” means the position
of eminence attained by an Advocate at the Bar by virtue of his ability,
seniority, legal acumen, special knowledge or experience and high
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
ethical standards maintained by him or her, both inside and outside
the Court.
(ii) An Advocate shall not be eligible to be designated as a Senior
Advocate unless he or she has actually practiced as an Advocate for
not less than ten years in the High Court of Jharkhand or in any Court
subordinate to the High Court of Jharkhand or any tribunal in
Jharkhand and has appeared and actually argued in some reported
case or cases involving important questions of law.
(iii) The advocate whose name is proposed for being designated
as a Senior Advocate or who applies for being designated as a Senior
Advocate shall be an income tax assessee as on the date of the
recommendation of Full Court /application, for a minimum period of
10 (Ten) years.
5. Initiative for designation as a Senior Advocate.-
(1) An Advocate may be considered for being designated as a Senior
Advocate on:
(a) an application is made by the Advocate concerned, in the
prescribed Format which shall be taken to get the his/her details &
shall be deemed to be his/her consent.
(b) Full Court may take a decision to designate an Advocate as
Senior Advocate even without any application by the Advocate
concerned.
All the decision of Full Court or the applications shall be submitted to the
Secretariat.
Provided that every application under sub-clause (1) (a) shall be made in
Form No.-1.
(2) Once in every year the Secretariat of the Permanent Committee
shall invite applications from members of the Bar Council of the State of
Jharkhand to be designated as Senior Advocate by publishing notice to
that effect in the website of the High Court of Jharkhand. But the whole
process must be concluded within six months from the last date of
submission of applications.
(3) The application by an advocate desirous of being designated as
Senior Advocate shall be addressed to the Registrar General.
(4) The application shall contain a declaration to the effect that no
application to designate him/her as a Senior Advocate has been
rejected by the Supreme Court of India or the High Court of Jharkhand
or any other High Court, within a period of two years immediately
preceding the date of application.
6. Procedure before the Secretariat:
i. All applications or recommendation of Full Court shall be
submitted to the Secretariat.
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
ii. On receipt of such applications or recommendation of Full
Court, the Secretariat shall compile the relevant data and
information with regard to the reputation, conduct and integrity of
the Advocate(s) concerned and verify the details of his/her
participation in pro-bono work, if any, reported judgments in which
he/she has appeared; the number of such judgments reported
during the last five years in the Court.
iii. The source(s) from which information/data will be sought
and collected by the Secretariat shall be as decided by the
Permanent Committee.
iv. The Secretariat shall publish the recommendation of Full
Court/ application for designation of a particular Advocate in the
official website of the High Court of Jharkhand inviting the
suggestions/views
of
other
stakeholders
in
the
proposed
designation within 30 (Thirty) days.
v. The Secretariat shall place the suggestions/views of other
stakeholders to the proposed designation before the Permanent
Committee for taking further instructions. The Permanent
Committee may, if considered fit and necessary, seek the
response from the Advocate concerned, on the
suggestions/views received in relation to his/her proposed
designation within such time as it may deem fit.
vi.
The views/suggestions shall be in writing, bear the name
and full address of the sender and shall be addressed to the
Registrar
General
of
the
High
Court.
Any
anonymous
petition/representation shall be liable to rejected.
vii.
If the Advocate is from any Court subordinate to the High
Court of Jharkhand or any tribunal in Jharkhand then opinion of the
concerned Administrative Judge is to be recorded.
viii.
After the data-base in terms of the above is compiled and
all such information as may be specifically directed by the
Committee to be obtained in respect of the Advocate is collected, and
the suggestions/views of the other stakeholders as also the response
from the Advocate, if any, have been received, the Secretariat shall
put up the case before the Permanent Committee for scrutiny. The
Permanent Committee may take assistance of other Sr. Advocates or
academics to assess the quality of writing of the publication, if any, of
the Advocate.
7. Procedure before the Permanent Committee:
i.
The decision of Full Court/application(s) for designation as
Senior Advocate shall be examined by the Permanent Committee in
the light of the materials provided by the Secretariat which shall
include the suggestions/views of the members of the Bar and other
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
stakeholders.
ii. The entire records and recommendation of the
Permanent Committee shall be forwarded to be placed before the
Full Court.
8. Procedure before the Full Court:
i.
A
recommendation
of
Full
Court/application
for
designation as a Senior Advocate shall be considered as accepted
by the Full Court, if the majority of Judges present are in favour of
such recommendation /application.
ii. The Full Court on its own may decide to designate any
advocate as Senior Advocate even without such Advocate having
applied for it, however the other qualification should be present.
iii. Voting by secret ballot shall be resorted in absence of
consensus. In the event of resort to secret ballot, a
recommendation /application for designation as a Senior
Advocate shall be considered as accepted if majority of the
Judges present vote in favour of the recommendation
/application.
iv. On the approval of Full Court, an Advocate shall be
designated as a Senior Advocate.
v. A recommendation /application that has not found favour
by the Full Court, it may be reviewed/reconsidered on the fresh
application, after expiry of a period of two years in the manner
indicated above.
9. Revocation and Surrender of Designation:
(a) The designation of an advocate as a Senior Advocate shall be
liable to be revoked after due notice to him/her, if-
i.
the Bar Council of India/Bar Council of the State of
Jharkhand/Bar Council of any other State finds that he/she
has committed professional/other misconduct or if the High
Court is otherwise satisfied that he/she has violated all or
any provisions of the Rules framed and issued by the High
Court of Jharkhand under sub-section (1) of section-34 of the
Advocates Act, 1961;
Or
ii. a designated Senior Advocate is guilty of any
misconduct which, in the opinion of the High Court,
disentitles him/her to continue to be worthy of the
designation or if he/she is convicted of an offence involving
moral turpitude or for the contempt of the Court;
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
The Full Court may review and recall its decision to designate him/her
as a Senior Advocate after such notice to him/her as may be directed
by the Chief Justice.
(b) Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, an
Advocate who has been designated as a Senior Advocate may
surrender the designation conferred on him/her by making an
application to withdraw the same to the Registrar General.
The Registrar General shall place the application before the Chief
Justice for appropriate orders thereon.
10. Notification of designation, revocation or withdrawal of Senior
Designation:
The Registrar General shall notify the fact of designation of an
advocate as Senior Advocate or revocation or withdrawal of such
designation to the Secretary General, Supreme Court of India, the Bar
Council of India, the Bar Council of State of Jharkhand, the Bar
Councils of other States and to all the Principal District & Sessions
Judges, subordinate to the High Court of Jharkhand, Tribunals in the
State of Jharkhand.
The notification shall also be published in the official website of
the High Court of Jharkhand and a copy thereof, be communicated to
the Judges of the High Court. The Secretariat of the committee shall
maintain the record of all the decisions relating to designation/
revocation/withdrawal of designation.
11. Residuary: All pending proposals/applications for designation of an
advocate as Senior Advocate shall be returned to the Advocate
concerned for applying afresh in accordance with these rules.
12. Canvassing: Canvassing in any form shall disqualify the Advocate
concerned from being so designated.
13. Repeal and Savings: All other previous rules, regulations and
guidelines for designation of an Advocate as Senior Advocate are
hereby repealed.
Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules any act done prior
to commencement of these rules shall not be invalidated.
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
FORM No.1 [Rule 5(1)(a)]
PROFORMA APPLICATION
(To be filled by the Advocate)
1. Name of the Advocate :
2. Permanent Residential Address and
Mobile number of the Advocate:
3. Gender: Male / Female / Transgender:
4. Email Address :
5. Address for correspondence:
6. Educational Qualification with area of specialization in any field of law:
7. Date of Birth :
8. Date and place of enrollment as an Advocate :
9. Ordinary place of practice:
10. Enrollment Number :
11. PAN Number:
12. Have you been a chamber junior to any lawyer?
:
If yes, furnish the name of such lawyer(s) and the duration.
13. Is any junior lawyer attached to your chamber?
If yes, furnish the name of such lawyer(s) and the duration.
14. Since when have you been an assessee under the Income Tax Act,
1961: [Attach copy of ITR filed of last 10 Years]
Affix
Recent
Passport
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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) Monday 24th November, 2025
15. List of important cases in which you have appeared as counsel and
argued:
16. Number of book Publication or publication in any legal journal to
credit?
Give details:
17. List of pro-bono work done by you:
18. Whether you have delivered Guest Lectures. If yes, details thereof:
19. Have you been found guilty of misconduct by the Bar Counsel of India/
Bar Counsel of the State of Jharkhand or any other State Bar Counsel
or is any such proceeding for misconduct is pending? Give
details:
20. Have you been convicted for any offence(s) involving moral turpitude
or is any such proceeding is pending against you? Give details:
21. Whether any proposal/application for designating you as a Senior
Advocate had earlier been made to the High Court of Jharkhand?
If yes, with what result?
22. Attach (Pin) four recent passport size color photographs.
I do hereby express and give my consent to be designated as a Senior
Advocate by the High Court of Jharkhand.
Dated:
SIGNATURE OF ADVOCATE
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Printed & Published by the Superintendent of Jharkhand Government Press, Doranda, Ranchi.
Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary) 518-- 50.