Hold Elections To Managing Committee Of Advocates Association Of Bengaluru By Dec 22 : Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed that the elections to appoint the Managing Committee of Advocates Association of Bengaluru, be conducted by December 22. The same is to be conducted by a seven member High Power Committee(HPC), which has been constituted by the court. The tenure of the Committee is for a period of three years and the tenure of the present committee ended on January 23, and the election has not been conducted.

Justice Krishna S Dixit in its order said "The HPC is hereby constituted of comprising the aforesaid members. N S Satyanarayana Gupta, shall be the Chairman of the committee and it shall co-opt one lady advocate and one member of SC or ST committee as its members. If already those enlisted do not belong to the SC/ST community."

It added "The committee shall function with consensus. However, in case of any difference it shall abide with the majority. The committee shall at the earliest and in any circumstances on or before December 22, 2021, conduct the election, freely and fairly and with transparency for constituting the new managing committee of the Advocates Association of Bengaluru."

The court added "The committee (HPC) shall function as if it is the State Election Commission for the petitioner association and the scope of powers shall be to accomplish the ordained task." The HPC shall immediately take in its custody all election related paraphernalia. The present Managing committee shall provide to the HPC, full cooperation and assistance by deploying adequate staff and providing necessary funds as are required for the purpose of the elections and other related works."

"The HPC will have all the powers to meet all the modalities as are required to conduct election on a war footing. The HPC can use all measures like installation of CCTv, Videography, photography etc for conducting free and fair elections," the court said.

The state government is also directed to deploy police personnel on the request of the HPC, for holding the elections, the police personnel shall not be withdrawn, sans the written consent of the Chairman of the committee or his nominee.

The present managing committee whose tenure has expired shall consciously and carefully keep away from the functioning of the HPC and the conduct of elections. All the staff of the employees of the petitioner association, shall be at the call of the HPC and shall obey its instruction's as if they are on deputation in the committee service.

The court also clarified that "As far as possible this court shall not be called upon to monitor the conduct of elections and to supervise the performance of the HPC activities, as it is an indoor affair of the Bar Association, which enjoys a great reputation and that any judicial intervention in the process will not be desirable."

The court allowed the present management committee to function as a limited ad-hoc committee. The court passed the order while hearing a petition filed by the Association challenging order dated 04.09.2021, whereby the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban District has been appointed as & to be its Administrator. Since the tenure of the Management Committee, having expired and the election having not been conducted; as per section 27A of the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960.

The petitioner had submitted that due to unfavourable circumstance generated by COVID-19 pandemic, elections could not be held for constituting the new body; this has happened to several societies of the kind in the State; in fact, COVID related lockdown & restrictions were obtaining and even access to Association & Court premises too were restricted for a long period; that being the position, the appointment of Administrator was highly uncalled for by any administrative standards & norms. Present President of the Managing Committee Mr. A P Ranganath, had submitted that even his Committee too is after the election for constituting the new body and therefore the question of postponing the same even remotely does not arise.

AAG Subramanya, had opposed the plea stating that petitioner is an august body of advocates huge in number, is true; its' Bye-laws prescribe a fixed tenure of three years for the elected body and it does not provide for the same to cling to the office after the expiry of the tenure, underlying principle being democracy, which animates the scheme of the Act, as well; there is not even one single decision either of the Apex Court or of any of the High Courts in the country, to the contrary; even during so called pandemic restrictions, several societies have held elections, may be with some amount of difficulty; petitioner cannot seek to be an exception to this general rule; the present Management cannot seek to perpetuate in the office and defer the election indefinitely banking upon COVID-19 as a plea of alibi.

The court had by an interim order dated September 9, kept in abeyance the impugned order. It had directed that the present Managing Committee whose tenure has expired shall continue in the office by way of ad hoc arrangement; it shall not take up any act or project that has financial or policy implication; it shall not organize or associate with any public function/programme without the prior leave of this Court.

The court rejected the prayer to dispose of the petition and posted the matter after four weeks. It orally said "I will not supervise it but will not dispose of the matter."

Case Title: THE ADVOCATES ASSOCIATION BENGALURU And THE STATE OF KARNATAKA

Case No: WP 16350/2021

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