Supreme Court To Consider Validity Of Rule Allowing BCI To Extend Term Of State Bar Councils Beyond Statutory Period

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the challenge to the amendment to Rule 32 of the Bar Council of India Rules, 2015, which allows the BCI to extend the term of State Bar Council Members beyond the statutory limits under the Advocates Act 1961. 

The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta was hearing a plea against the order of the Rajasthan High Court, which deferred the hearing of the challenge to  Rule 32 of the Bar Council of India Rules, 2015. 

The Counsel for the petitioner submitted, " What has happened is, under the garb of this verification of advocates, they have extended the period for more than 4-5 years, election has been withheld my lords" 

The bench directed to tag the present matter with the pending case on a similar issue titled -Bar Council of India Vs. Shyam Bihari & Ors Transfer Petition (Civil) No.2930/2024

As per the amendment, BCI empowers itself to extend the term of elected members of State Bar Councils prescribed under Section 8 of the Advocates Act, 1961 . S.8 of the Act states that : 

"The term of office of an elected member of a State Bar Council (other than an elected member thereof referred to in section 54) shall be five years from the date of publication of the result of his election:

Provided that where a State Bar Council fails to provide for the election of its members before the expiry of the said term, the Bar Council of India may, by order, for reasons to be recorded in writing, extend the said term for a period not exceeding six months." 

In this case, since the State Bar Council failed to conduct elections as contemplated in Section 8, it had to constitute a special committee under Section 8-A. Furthermore, the old Rule 32 provided for the constitution of an ad-hoc committee to oversee the preparation of electoral rolls which had to work under the special committee constituted under Section 8-A of the Act.

The new Rule 32 provides that the requirement to form the ad-hoc committee be waived. The BCI is now empowered to extend the period of elected members/office bearers of State Bar Councils beyond the statutory periods prescribed in the Act.

Notably, the petitioner first challenged the amendment before the Rajasthan High Court when the term of elected members of Bar Council of Rajasthan (“BCR”) got over on January 16, 2024 (including the extension of 6 months) and Amended Rule 32 was applied to to extend the term of BCR's members whose term otherwise got over in January, 2024.

However, the High Court has kept the hearing of the challenge in abeyance since the Apex Court was already seized of similar petitions challenging the amended Rule in November 2024. 

Case Details: SHYAM BIHARI vs. BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA| SLP(C) No. 007328 - / 2025