Who is a Senior Advocate

‘Senior advocate’ means any advocate so designated under subsection (2) of Section 16 of the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961), and all such advocates whose names were borne on the roll of the senior advocates of the Court immediately before the commencement of Chapter III of the Advocates Act, 1961;

Where as ‘Advocate’ means a person whose name is entered on the roll of advocates prepared and maintained by a State Bar Council under the Advocates Act, 1961 (25 of 1961);

‘Advocate-on-record’ means an advocate, who is entitled under the Rules to act as well as to plead for a party in the Court; An advocate, other than a senior advocate, may, on his fulfilling the conditions laid down in Order IV Rule 5 of the Rules, be registered in the Court as an advocate on-record

 Obligation of a Senior Advocate

(i) The Chief Justice and the Judges may, with the consent of the advocate, designate an advocate as senior advocate if, in their opinion, by virtue of his ability, standing at the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law, the said advocate deserves such a
distinction.
(ii) A senior advocate, on being so designated, shall not appear as senior advocate till he reports to the Registry that parties represented by him earlier as advocate on-record have been informed about his designation as senior advocate and that necessary arrangements have been made for the parties to make appearance before the Court in all the cases represented by him till then.

A senior advocate shall not–

(i) file a vakalatnama or act in any Court or Tribunal in India;
(ii) appear without an advocate on-record in the Court or without a junior in any other Court or Tribunal in India;
(iii) accept instructions to draw pleadings or affidavit, advise on evidence or do any drafting work of an analogous kind in any Court or Tribunal in India or undertake conveyancing work of any kind whatsoever but this prohibition shall not extend to settling any such matter as aforesaid in consultation with a junior; and (iv) accept directly from a client any brief or instructions to appear in any Court or Tribunal in India.