The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition filed by advocate Mathews Nedumpara, challenging the recent designation of 70 lawyers as Senior Advocates by the Delhi High Court.

A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and K Vinod Chandran rejected the petition, asserting that regardless of a lawyer’s senior designation, courts do not treat lawyers differently.

Previously, the Court had reprimanded Nedumpara for suggesting that relatives of judges were being appointed as Senior Advocates. “Can you name any judges whose children have been made seniors?” the Court had queried.

In response, Nedumpara presented a chart to the Court listing details of Supreme Court judges whose close relatives were either judges or distinguished lawyers.

Despite this, the Court today upheld its decision to dismiss the petition.

The designation process at the Delhi High Court has been surrounded by controversy from the start, with one member of the Permanent Committee resigning, claiming the final list had been prepared without his consent. Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, a representative of the Delhi government on the panel, did not sign the final list circulated to the full court for deliberation, as he was tied up with an arbitration for two days. Allegations were also made that the original list had been tampered with.