The barrister David Smallbone was yesterday granted access to the comments others had made about his application to become a senior counsel.

While the Federal Court Justice David Yates ordered the names of those who commented remain secret, he gave the Bar Association four days to give Mr Smallbone access to the information.

The Bar Association foreshadowed it may seek a stay of the decision and is understood to be considering an appeal.

In a surprise move following the judgment, the association brought forward its announcements of successful applicants for this year.

Twenty-four barristers out of 96 applicants will be granted the title, including two women. This compares with 20 successful applicants last year, when 128 barristers applied. For the first time in at least three years, female barristers were less likely to be successful than their male colleagues.

The selection process - based on secret comments by a panel of fellow lawyers - remains controversial despite recent reform and does not include a chance for the applicant to respond to criticism.

Mr Smallbone, however, will be given this chance and the Bar Association has been ordered not to make a decision about his application until after he has been granted access to the information. He said yesterday: ''It's a personal case but there are issues of principle which I feel strongly about.''

The senior public defender Mark Ierace, SC, said the judgment would make the process more transparent but would also make the members of the consultation group ''more circumspect'' in their remarks.

He said: ''I won't be surprised if ultimately silks are abolished.''

Another senior barrister said the decision - if not successfully appealed - may force the Bar Association to give reasons for their selections, which would then be subject to legal challenge.

''At the moment, it is like the papal system, the smoke goes up and you're anointed,'' the SC said.

One of those who missed out, the criminal barrister George Thomas, criticised the process as lacking checks and balances.

''If this was a decision made by a company and no reasons were given and no disclosure and it was 'tell me in secret' and no one could ask any questions about the process, it would be laughed out of court as denial of procedural fairness and actual bias,'' he said.

One of the prominent successful applicants this year is Jeremy Kirk, a constitutional lawyer who started practice as a barrister in 2002. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University.

Kristina Stern has practised in NSW for only five years, after 10 years working at the London bar and completing a PhD at Cambridge.

Mark Robinson is also highly regarded, including for his recent High Court victory in the Hells Angels bikie case.

Others include criminal barristers Greg Farmer, who most recently was junior counsel defending Mark Standen; Sarah McNaughton, who was the junior prosecutor in the 2009 terrorism trial; and Dr James Renwick, a barrister who practises in appellate, administrative, constitutional and commercial law.

Richard Beasley, who has worked in administrative and commercial law, is also the author of two novels. Braddon Hughes, a crown prosecutor, is the most senior of the successful applicants, having joined the bar 27 years ago.