Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With HC Decision That Writ Petition Isn't Maintainable Over Bar Association Election Dispute

In a case raising the question as to whether a Bar Association's elections are amenable to writ jurisdiction of constitutional courts under Article 226 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court today expressed that if there is an issue regarding elections to a Bar Association, the same shall go before the concerned Civil Court.

The bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and AG Masih was dealing in particular with the case of Alipore Bar Association, when it disposed of as withdrawn the plea, leaving questions of law open.

To recapitulate facts of the case, petitioner-Subir Sengupta filed a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court raising issues pertaining to the elections of Alipore Bar Association. He contended inter-alia that names of almost 400 members of the Association were included in the final voter list, even though they had not cleared the AIBE.

The High Court disposed of this petition, setting aside the election notice and directing that the Bar Council of West Bengal take a call on whether such persons who had not cleared AIBE were eligible to cast vote in elections of the Bar Association.

Subsequently, Alipore Bar Association filed an appeal, which was allowed. The Division Bench of the High Court held that the writ petition under Article 226 against Alipore Bar Association was not maintainable.

"Any party aggrieved by result of the election or any party desirous of raising an "election dispute", if so advised, may move the common law forum i.e. the competent Civil Court for redressal of his/their grievance within the time limited by law", it recorded.

Aggrieved by this order, petitioner approached the Supreme Court.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner, urged that there was no inter-se dispute in the elections; rather, the issue was as to how persons who had not cleared the All India Bar Exam (AIBE) could be permitted to vote. He contended that there were two previous rounds of litigation before the High Court, wherein certain directions were passed, but the same were not implemented. The senior counsel stated that the writ petition underlying the present plea merely asked for implementation of the said directions.

Hearing him, Justice Oka remarked, "They (Courts) should not be further overburdened by entertaining what Bar Associations are doing...There is a dispute about elections of a bar association...it will go to the civil court".

At this point, Sankaranarayan sought to withdraw the plea, pointing out that four other High Courts had taken a contrary view. He prayed that the question of law may be left open. Accordingly, the bench passed its order.

Case Title: SUBIR SENGUPTA Versus SECRETARY, ALIPORE BAR ASSOCIATION AND ORS., Diary No. 23223-2024