The Supreme Court directed that the Supreme Court Bar Association’s Special General Meeting shall be carried out on or before April 16 at Supreme Court Bar Library No.1. It further stated that the Supreme Court Bar Association members, who, according to SCBA rules, are eligible to vote in its election, can participate in the meeting.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan passed the order while hearing an application lodged by a member of the bar association through Advocate-on-Record Pravir Choudhary seeking a relaxation of the norms for determining voter eligibility.
The bench observed that they are prima facie satisfied that all those members who are eligible to contest and vote in the elections in terms of Rule 18 of the SCBA Rule, shall be eligible to be invited and participate in the Special General Meeting to be convened under Rule 22 of these Rules.
Last year in August, the bench directed the SCBA members, including its president and senior counsel Adhish C Aggarwala, to submit their suggestions regarding further reforms in the lawyers’ body’s election process. The Supreme Court in January had asked the Association to consider the desirability of taking up all issues in its General Body Meeting.
Notably, SCBA’s position has been that if anyone wants an amendment to its election process, they should come forward with a requisition supported by at least 150 members, which the General Body will then vote on.
Considering the aforesaid background, the court passed the above order and directed that a committee shall examine the representations/requisitions of all members. The committee led by three Senior Advocates Shekhar Naphade, V. Giri, and S.B. Upadhyay, was also allowed to seek other SCBA members’ assistance as appropriate.
The court added that all the valid representations/requisitions received by the Executive Committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association should be placed in the said Special General Meeting. Consecutively, the Court requested observers submit their report before the next hearing date and posted the matter on April 19.