Karnataka High Court Stays Holding Of Bar Council Of India Elections For Chairman & Other Office Bearers

The Karnataka High Court has passed an interim order staying the holding of elections on December 4 or to any other adjourned date to the office of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Executive Members of the Bar Council of India.

The High Court passed the order in a writ petition by Advocate Sadashiva Reddy YR, a member of the BCI from the Karnataka State Bar Council, challenging the BCI resolution of November 19 for scheduling the elections to the offices of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Executive Members on December 4.

Senior Advocate Jayakumar S Patil, appearing for the petitioner, told the Court that the tenure of the existing office bearers of BCI is till April 17, 2022. Therefore, there is no necessity to hold the elections 4 months ahead of the expiry of the term. Although the senior counsel conceded that the Rules do not clearly specify when the elections are to be held, he argued that it is highly arbitrary and unreasonable to deviate from the established practice of not holding elections too early and too ahead of the expiry of the term. It was further argued that the election meeting was held without issuing statutory notice.

The High Court recorded a prima facie agreement with the petitioner's argument while issuing notice to the Bar Council of India.

"A perusal of the petition papers lends support to the above submissions canvassed on behalf of the petitioner; apparently, the tenure of the Committee is going to expire only in the second half of April, 2022 and therefore, there is no reason for scheduling the election in question at too early a point of time; no prejudice would be caused to anyone if the scheduled election is interdicted for the time being", the order passed by Justice Krishna S Dixit on November 25 stated.