The Bar Council of India approached the Supreme Court of India seeking approval for a merit-based co-option process to ensure 30% women representation in state bar councils, proposing selection of unelected women candidates securing the highest votes under a 10% additional quota.
The Bar Council of India (BCI) has approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to implement a merit-based “co-option” process, aimed at ensuring 30% representation for women in state bar councils.
Under the BCI’s proposal, a 10% co-option quota would be filled by choosing women candidates who received the highest number of votes among those who were not elected, rather than relying on subjective or discretionary nominations. The mechanism is intended to work alongside the 20% of seats already reserved for women through direct elections, so that the combined total meets the 30% requirement set by the Supreme Court.
BCI chairperson and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra said the bar body has taken into account submissions from stakeholders submitted before the High Powered Election Supervisory Committee appointed by the apex court to oversee the co-option of women members in state bar councils.
The BCI has said,
”This issue concerns not merely filling seats, but the larger institutional objective, which is ensuring that women advocates, who constitute an indispensable and distinguished part of the legal fraternity, are given their rightful place in the representative structure of the Bar. The Bar Council of India approached this matter with sincerity, fairness, transparency and a deep sense of responsibility toward the legal profession as a whole,”
The BCI further stated that the co-option should be carried out from among “contesting” women candidates who received the highest votes but were not declared elected within the intended 20% women representation.
In its application, the BCI argued that selecting “runners-up” women who narrowly missed election represents the most democratic method to fulfil the quota. The council said this approach both respects the electorate’s mandate and reduces the risk of favouritism.
”It would be fair, objective, transparent, and least susceptible to arbitrariness,” the BCI has stated, adding that tying co-option to the votes actually polled would ensure the process remains ”connected to the democratic choice expressed by advocates”.
The development comes after a landmark Supreme Court directive in December 2023, which mandated 30% reservation for women in state bar councils.
Earlier, on April 13, the Supreme Court asked the High-Powered Election Supervisory Committee headed by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to determine the exact manner in which the 10% co-option should be carried out.
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