Bar Council Elections: SC stays Madras High Court order, calls it ‘moralistic’

The Supreme Court today stayed the order passed by the Madras High Court on February 16, in which the High Court had issued a slew of directions aimed at ensuring the free and fair conduct of elections to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry..A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud heard the appeal filed by one K Chandramohan before remarking,.“What kind of order Madras High Court has passed? It is a moralistic order.”.The Court proceeded to stay the order passed by the High Court, with the exception of the condition that the contesting candidates should disclose their criminal antecedents..The Madras High Court on February 16 passed a detailed order with instructions aimed at ensuring the free and fair conduct of elections to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTN), scheduled to be held on March 28..The order was passed in a batch of petitions filed before the Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and R Tharani. The petitions were filed following allegations that the forthcoming Bar Council elections may be tainted by rampant malpractices..These writ petitions prayed, inter alia, for the High Court to quash the BCI’s order deferring its decision to approve amendments proposed to the state Bar Council election rules, by the special committee of the BCTN..The High Court observed that the vital functions of Bar Council representatives required that they possess extraordinary legal knowledge, wide exposure to various laws and sufficient years of standing in the Bar. However,.“…the reality is something shocking and disturbing. Mostly, persons, who make money through real estate business and not practising in Courts, having communal backing, distributing free gifts, spending in lakhs and even more than a crore, without any practice in law, much less any good practice, are elected..If this is the quality of the members elected, one can imagine as to how they would discharge their functions as members of the statutory body which prescribes standards of legal education, professional conduct and etiquette for advocates.”.The High Court proceeded to quash the BCI’s resolution to defer its decision on the proposed BCTN amendments, holding that,.“If no decision is taken by the Bar Council of India, then the efforts taken by the Special Committee members to prevent the criminal elements with money and muscle power from contesting the election would become futile. The consequence of election of those elements would be very dangerous and the hold of those elements over the profession and the Bar Council cannot be prevented.”.The BCI was directed to make its decision on the General Council meeting scheduled on February 18..Further, apart from the election rule amendments proposed by the BCTN, the Court also directed the BCI to consider whether it is possible to appoint a few more retired judges of High Court to oversee the conduct of the Bar Council elections..Following this recommendation, the BCI yesterday appointed Justice (Retd.) T Mathivanan as Additional Returning Officer to oversee the conduct of the forthcoming elections to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTN)..The High Court had also found it appropriate to propose additional rules for the conduct of Bar Council elections, to be considered for approval by the BCI. The rules so proposed included those calling for a mandatory minimum of reported/contested judgments for eligible candidates, disclosure of assets by candidates and their family members, disclosure of criminal antecedents, a bar on candidates holding profit making offices including MLAs, MPs, Government Pleaders etc..Allied directions were also issued to Income Tax authorities and the Director General of Police..However, the Supreme Court has today stayed this order calling it “moralistic” with the exception of the condition that the contesting candidates should disclose their criminal antecedents.