Chaitanya Palem, NALSAR University ABSTRACT The designation of Senior Advocates under Section 16 of the Advocates Act, 1961, is formally framed as an opinion of constitutional courts but operates, in substance, as an administrative state action subject to Article 14. Between 2017 and 2025, the Supreme Court attempted to discipline this discretion through a point-based evaluation framework, recalibrated it, and ultimately deleted it as unworkable. This trajectory has produced a post-2025...