Delhi High Court defers Delhi Bar elections to December 13

The Delhi High Court recently deferred Bar elections in the national capital to December 13.

A full bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma on October 1 ordered,

"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."

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.

After the High Court adjourned the matters to November 27, the women lawyers approached the Supreme Court challenging the adjournment.

While hearing these special leave petitions, the Supreme Court urged the Association to reserve at least four out of ten Executive Committee posts for women, including the post of Treasurer.

The matter before the apex court will be heard next on October 16.

In light of this fact, the High Court has now allowed the postponement of the Delhi Bar 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," it clarified.

Notably, the DHCBA general body on Monday rejected the adoption of resolutions favouring reservation of posts for women in its Executive Committee.

Before the High Court, Senior Advocates Mohit Mathur, Kirti Uppal, Rakesh Tiku, and Inderbir Singh Alag, 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 for the DHCBA.

Advocates T Singdev, Abhijit Chakravarty, Tanishq Srivastava, Anum Hussain and Sourabh Kumar appeared for the Bar Council of Delhi.

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 appeared for the original writ petitioners.

Advocates Shobha Gupta, Sanskriti Shakuntala Gupta, Simran, Inder Singh Saroha, Manjeet Mathur, and Atul Sharma represented the Delhi Bar Association.

In March this year, the High Court had directed that elections for all bar associations in the national capital should be held simultaneously and on the same day. The date for such elections was set for October 19.

[Read order]