The Supreme Court issued a notice regarding a plea challenging the “one member, one post” rule for Delhi bar associations. This rule, previously upheld by the Delhi High Court, mandates that all bar association elections in Delhi be conducted simultaneously and prohibits lawyers from contesting or holding multiple posts across different bar bodies.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court requested a response from the Bar Council of Delhi and various bar associations in the capital regarding a plea that challenges a directive prohibiting candidates from contesting for two posts simultaneously in Bar elections.
A Bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan scheduled the next hearing for September 9.
Senior Advocate Shushil Kumar Jain, along with Advocates Syed Mehdi Imam, Ankur Sharma, Abhinav Sharma, SI Vashisht, and Kailash Vasudev, represented the appellants. Advocates Ajay Kumar Agarwal, Rajeev Ranjan Dwivedi, and Piyush Beriwal appeared on behalf of the Bar Council of Delhi.
On March 19 of this year, the Delhi High Court ruled that elections for all bar associations in the national capital must be conducted simultaneously and on the same day.
Among its directives, the court emphasized the need to reduce the influence of money in bar elections and maintain the integrity of the election process by prohibiting the hosting of election-related parties and the display of hoardings.
The current appeal focuses on challenging a specific directive from that ruling,
“No member of any Bar Association or body, such as the Bar Council of Delhi or Bar Council of India, shall contest or hold simultaneously a post in two different Bar Associations/bodies.”
The High Court’s ruling issued while addressing a group of petitions concerning the requirement for all bar associations to hold uniform elections on the same day.
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In August 2023, the High Court established a committee chaired by Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva to oversee this matter.
The Court’s decision on this matter could have broad implications for how bar association elections are conducted in Delhi and potentially set a precedent for other regions.