The Delhi High Court deferred Bar elections in the national capital to December 13. The Court was hearing an application filed by the Secretary of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) to postpone the upcoming polls, initially scheduled for October 19. Two writ petitions were initially filed before the High Court by a few women lawyers. One of the petitions sought directions to all district bar associations in the national capital to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in all Bar elections, and the other sought reservation for women in the Executive Committee of the DHCBA.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court postponed the Bar elections in the national capital to December 13, 2024.
A full bench, comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma, passed the order on October 1, 2024, in response to an application seeking a delay in the elections.
The court stated,
“Keeping in view the aforesaid Supreme Court order dated 26th September, 2024, as well as the fact that the GBM has been called for on 07th October, 2024, and the process of nomination of candidates, which normally takes twenty one days, can begin only post Supreme Court hearing on 16th October, 2024 (as on that date one will know which seat has been reserved for lady candidates), the date of election to all the Bar Associations is postponed to 13th December, 2024.”
This decision comes after the Secretary of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) filed an application to defer the elections, initially scheduled for October 19, 2024. Two writ petitions had earlier been filed in the High Court by several women lawyers, seeking the implementation of a 33 percent reservation for women in Bar elections across all district bar associations in Delhi. One of these petitions also specifically requested reservation for women within the Executive Committee of the DHCBA.
After the High Court adjourned the matters to November 27, the women petitioners escalated the case to the Supreme Court, challenging the delay. During the hearing of these special leave petitions, the Supreme Court made an appeal to the Association, recommending that at least four out of ten Executive Committee positions, including the role of Treasurer, should be reserved for women.
The next hearing before the Supreme Court is scheduled for October 16, 2024. In light of this ongoing judicial process, the High Court approved the postponement of the elections.
“In case the Delhi High Court Bar Association seeks extension of time for filing/submission of Declaration Forms or for filing forms on the portal for issuance of Proximity Cards, they are at liberty to approach the Security Committee overseeing issuance of Proximity Cards,”
-the Court clarified.
Interestingly, on October 7, 2024, the DHCBA’s general body rejected resolutions proposing the reservation of seats for women within its Executive Committee.
The court proceedings saw representation from several senior advocates and lawyers on both sides. Senior Advocates Mohit Mathur, Kirti Uppal, Rakesh Tiku, and Inderbir Singh Alag, along with Advocates Jattan Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Amit Chadha, Naginder Benipal, Shyam Sharma, Sanjay Dewan, Bandana Kaur Grover, Dhan Mohan, Rajat Manchanda, Nishant Anand, Gayatri Puri, Nitesh Mehra, Siddharth Tripathy, Ankit Siwach, Ashish, Sandeep Kumar, Monu Kumar, Ayush Bisht, Kavish Sharma, Sumit Misra, Aman Chaudhary, and Harsh Kumar appeared on behalf of the DHCBA.
Advocates T Singdev, Abhijit Chakravarty, Tanishq Srivastava, Anum Hussain, and Sourabh Kumar represented the Bar Council of Delhi, while Advocates Preet Pal Singh, Tanupreet Kaur, Akanksha Singh, Madhukar Pandey, and Bhardwaj appeared for the Bar Council of India.
Advocates Gautam Das and PK Dash represented the original writ petitioners, and Advocates Shobha Gupta, Sanskriti Shakuntala Gupta, Simran, Inder Singh Saroha, Manjeet Mathur, and Atul Sharma appeared for the Delhi Bar Association.
It is worth noting that in March 2024, the High Court had directed that elections for all bar associations in the national capital should be conducted simultaneously on the same day. The election date was initially set for October 19, 2024, but has now been moved to December 13 following the recent order.
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