Supreme Court directs to convene Special General Meeting of SCBA on lawyers’ body election process reforms
Case title – Supreme Court Bar Association VS B.D. Kaushik
Case no. – Miscellaneous Application……Diary No(s).13992/2023 IN C.A.No.3401/2023
Order passed on – March 04, 2024
Quoram – Justice Surya Kant and Justice K.V. Viswanathan
An application was filed by a member of the bar association seeking a relaxation of the norms for determining voter eligibility.
The Supreme Court directed the members of Supreme Court Bar Association to provide their suggestions regarding the reforms to be made in the lawyers’ body’s election process.
Background of the case
The Court, in 2011 ruling on the eligibility to vote noted that some of the Supreme Court Bar Association members were not regular practitioners at the apex court and mostly made their presence felt during the elections. The court relied on the directions given in the 1998 Vijay Balchandra case to be adopted to identify eligible voters.
According to the existing rules, SCBA members who have 50 appearances per year in the previous two years, those representing or appearing for the state government or the central government and having a total of at least 50 appearances for such government during the period of three calendar years, and those who entered the Supreme Court using their proximity card for 60 days in the concerned year would be eligible to vote.
The Advocate Surender Kumar Tyagi filed an interlocutory application ahead of the 2023 SCBA elections. He sorted for a relaxation in the aforesaid parameters for identifying eligible voters. He submitted that the Court resorting to virtual mode in wake of the Covid-19 norms affected the appearance of members in 2021.
He contended that in consideration of the above circumstances, strict compliance to the above rules would be discriminatory against the regular practitioners and members of the SCBA and sort for a relaxation in the same to enable the regular practitioners to vote in 2023.
Court’s observation and order
The Supreme Court considering the suggestions of the SCBA members and learned Senior Counsel made the following order.
The Court stated that all those members who are eligible to contest and vote in the elections in terms of Rule 18 of the SCBA Rules, shall be eligible to participate in the Special General Meeting which is to be convened under Rule 22 of these Rules.
The Court directed that a committee of comprising of three Senior Advocates, S/Shri Shekhar Naphade, V.Giri and S.B. Upadhyay shall examine the representations/requisitions of all members. Further, added that all valid representations/requisitions received by the Executive Committee of SCBA are eligible to be placed in the Special General Meeting. The Court also allowed the committee to seek the assistance of other SCBA members’.
The Apex Court, thereby, ordered to convene the Special General Meeting of SCBA on or before 16.04.2024 at Supreme Court Bar Library No.1. The Court requested the observers to submit their report before the next hearing date and posted the matter on April 19.
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Judgement Reviewed by – Keerthi K