Nishka Srinivas Veluvali –

Published On: December 04, 2021 at 19:30 IST

Karnataka High Court on Saturday, 04 December 2021 refused to get in the way of the Interim Order given by the Single Judge Bench, which had put a stay on holding elections on December 4 or any other date to the office of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Executive Members of the Bar Council of India.

The Intra-Court Appeal filed by Bar Council of India (BCI) was quashed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum.

The Bench stated, “We are of the considered view that no lis has been decided. The writ appeal would not be maintainable. However, it would be open to the appellant (BCI) they may move an application for vacation of interim order. In case of filing of such application within one week, it is expected that writ court will decide in accordance with law expeditiously as early as possible. With this observations appeal is disposed off.”    

Advocate Sadashiv Reddy YR, member of the Bar Council of Indi (BCI) from the Karnataka State Bar Council, filed a Writ Petition opposing the BCI resolution of 19 November about holding elections to the position of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Executive members on December 04.

The Petition stated that the tenure for the existing office was till April 17, 2022, hence there is no requirement to conduct elections before the expiration of the tenure.

However, the Senior Counsel argued that there are no specific rules for when the elections are to be held. He furthermore added 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.”

The Single Bench agreed with the Petition and issued an Order to BCI stating “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.”

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