Shaji P. Chaly, a retired Judge of the Kerala High Court has been appointed as a standing Counsel for the Central Government in the Supreme Court of India. The notification was issued on October 7, 2023 by the Ministry of Law and Justice. Justice Chaly retired on May 29, 2023.

Shaji P. Chaly has been appointed to the Group 'A' Panel of the Supreme Court. There are 34 other lawyers on the Group 'A' Panel as per the notification. Shaji Chaly is one of the seniormost lawyers in the list, based on the year of enrolment. The juniormost lawyers in Group 'A' Panel of the list were enrolled in the year 2020.

Shaji P. Chaly enrolled as an Advocate on January 26, 1986, and was sworn as an Additional Judge of the High Court of Kerala on April 10, 2015. He was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the High Court with effect from April 5, 2017.

The notification issued by the Ministry says, "The President is pleased to engage / up-grade, as shown in the table below, following Advocates for conducting Central Government litigations before the Supreme Court of India, with effect from the date of this order, for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier".

Apart from the 34 lawyers in the Group 'A' Panel, there are 35 lawyers in the Group 'B' Panel and 20 lawyers in the 'C' Panel, as per the present notification.

Earlier, on May 2, 2022 the Law Ministry had issued a notification appointing panel counsel in supersession of earlier notifications. The present notification appears to be in addition to the May 2 notification since the same has not been superseded. The said notification had a list of 181 names in Group 'A' Panel alone.

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Justice Shaji P ChalyKerala High Court

Verdictum News Desk