Bar Council v. Bar Associations back in P&H High Court after SC directs fresh hearing

The Supreme Court today quashed a judgment of the Punjab & Haryana High Court by which it had refused to look into the vires of Bar Association (Constitution & Registration) Rules, 2015 (Rules)..The decision came in an appeal filed by the office bearers of the Bar associations of Rohtak and Panipat challenging the judgment of the High Court on the ground that they were not made parties before the High Court and were not heard thereby, violating the principles of natural justice..A Division Bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice NV Ramana accepted this argument while refusing to go into the merits of the case..The impugned Rules were framed by the State Bar Council on a direction given by the High Court. The said Rules allegedly interfered into the administration and internal matters of the District Bar Associations including conduct of elections. Subsequently, the challenge to the said Rules was not considered by the High Court in its judgment as the parties to the case had agreed to give up the challenge to the Rules. Based on the said consent between the parties, the petition before the High Court was disposed of without considering the vires of Rules..The petitioners appealed to the Supreme Court against this decision of the High Court as their elections were rendered invalid due to the impugned decision of the High Court..Though the petitioners raised a slew of arguments pertaining to the Rules, including whether the State Bar Council can frame Rules for District Bar Associations, the Supreme Court did not consider those arguments. It instead restricted itself to the issue that the petitioners were not given an opportunity to present their case before the High Court..It, therefore, set aside the judgment of the High Court on the ground that the petitioners were not heard and directed the High Court to hear the case afresh on merits..Advocate Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the petitioners.