Supreme Court stays 'one member one post' rule for Delhi bar bodies

The Supreme Court recently stayed a Delhi High Court directive that stated that no candidate will be allowed to contest for two posts simultaneously in bar elections in the national capital [DK Sharma and ors v. Bar Council of Delhi and ors]..A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanthan, however, clarified that the Delhi's bar elections, scheduled on October 19, have not been stayed."Leave granted. Until further orders, there shall be stay of impugned orders passed by the High Court. Needless to state that the pendency of the present appeals would not amount to staying the elections of any of the bodies," it ordered on September 9..The Supreme Court had in August sought the response of the Bar Council of Delhi and various bar associations in the matter.."Where is the money coming from?" Supreme Court flags concerns over Bar body elections.On March 19 this year, the Delhi High Court had ruled that elections for all bar associations in the national capital should be held simultaneously and on the same day.Among a slew of directions, it added that to curb the role of money in bar elections and ensure the purity of the poll process, no election parties should be hosted and no hoardings should be put up.The present appeal is limited to the following direction in that ruling:"No member of any Bar Association or body, such as the Bar Council of Delhi or Bar Council of India would contest or hold simultaneously post in two different Bar Associations/ bodies."In an order passed on September 12, the Supreme Court clarified that its stay order is limited to this directive..Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar Jain with Advocates Syed Mehdi Imam, Ankur Sharma, Abhinav Sharma, SI Vashisht, Atif Suhrawardy, Tabrez Ahmad and Kailash Vasudev appeared for the appellant,.Advocate DK Sharma.Sharma is the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Bar Council of Delhi.Advocates Ajay Kumar Agarwal and Rajeev Ranjan Dwivedi appeared for the Delhi Bar Council.Advocate Piyush Beriwal appeared for one of the petitioners before the Delhi High Court.Advocate Shohit Chaudhry appeared for the Delhi High Court Bar Association.Advocates Gautam Das, Dhirendra Kumar Jha, Abanikanta Sahu, Santosh Rout, and RK Padhi appeared for the Advocate PK Dash (who also appeared in-person), one of the petitioners before the High Court..The High Court's verdict came while disposing of a batch of petitions related to the holding of uniform elections for all bar associations on the same day.In August 2023, the High Court had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva to explore the possibility of holding elections for all the bar associations in Delhi on the same day. .All Bar associations in Delhi except one agree for uniform elections on same day; Delhi High Court to take final call.[Read orders]