Supreme Court urges DHCBA to reserve four EC posts including treasurer for women

The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) to reserve 4 out of 10 posts in the Executive Committee (EC) of the bar body for women [Shobha Gupta and anr v. Bar Council of Delhi & Ors].A Bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan said that four posts under consideration should include the post of treasurer. "Let the meeting of the General Body of the Delhi High Court Bar Association ... be held as early as possible but not later than 10 days from today. The General Body of the Bar Association shall consider to reserve the post of the Treasurer exclusively for the women members of the Bar Association", the Court said.Apart from that, the bar body should consider reserving three more posts for women, the Court added.Objections raised to the same by DHCBA president, Senior Counsel Mohit Mathur, was turned down by the Bench."Please do not disarm me. Campaigning (for bar elections) has started," Mathur said."Our best wishes for your next tenure as well Mr Mathur. Women members will be most capable of handling treasurer post," the Court replied..The Bench was hearing two petitions, one seeking directions to all the district bar associations in the national capital to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in all Bar elections, and another seeking reservation for women in the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA)..Elections for the Bar Council of Delhi and all the bar associations in the national capital are scheduled to be held on October 19 this year..Senior Advocate ANS Nandkarni, appearing for Delhi bar associations, said "We already have 1 post reserved for women.""Once elections are held, then it (petitions) will become infructuous," said Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora for the petitioners..The Court, after hearing the parties today, directed DHCBA to consider reserving four posts in EC for women.Similar directions were sought for other Delhi bar associations of various district courts as well but the Court said it will start with DHCBA. "We need some brand ambassadors to show the way. Maybe once DHCBA does then, they (district bar associations) will do it and eagerly follow what is done by High Court Bar. We have no reason to doubt that district bars will not follow," the Bench remarked..[Read order]