NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to designate three women lawyers as ‘ senior advocates ’.

In a full-court meeting of all judges presided by Chief Justice P S Sathasivam , it was unanimously decided to designate Meenakshi Arora, Sushma Suri and Vibha Dutt Makhija as senior advocates.

The meeting also decided to designate Sushil Jain as senior advocate making it a first in SC's history to keep male lawyers in the minority while designating them as seniors.

There have been only a few women senior advocates practicing in the Supreme Court. The present lot include Nalini Chidambaram and Indira Jaising, the first woman law officer for the Union government, and Indu Malhotra, who was designated senior five years back.

This year will go down in history as the year of women in judiciary. A couple of months back, women lawyers had succeeded in convincing the Supreme Court to implement its 16-year-old judgment in Visaka case to protect women lawyers from sexual harassment inside court premises and advocates' chambers near the courts.

The full court meeting rejected Supreme Court Bar Association ’s request to defer consideration of names for the purpose of designating them as senior advocates.