Mitali Palnitkar
Published On: February 04, 2022 at 17:25 IST
On February 4, 2022, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a Writ Petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by two Advocates challenging the Bar Council of India’s (BCI) notification on holding elections of its Office Bearers on February 6, 2022 and seeking Reservation of 30% seats for women in the State Bar Councils.
The Bench comprised of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Abhay Oka. The Petitioners were represented by Advocate Radhika Gautam. The Respondents – BCI and Bar Council of India Trust were represented by Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra and Advocates Preetpal Singh and Anjul Dwivedi.
The Bench granted the Petitioners the liberty to approach the BCI for redressal of their grievances with respect to Reservation for women Lawyers.
Earlier, similar Writ Petitions were filed in High Courts of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. The Karnataka High Court had refused to Stay elections and directed the BCI to not announce the results and keep the Ballot Papers in sealed cover, which shall be produced before Court on February 18, 2022.
The BCI decided to hold elections but will keep the results in sealed cover. A former Chief Justice and a former Judge of High Court would be appointed as Observers of the elections.
The Petitioners argued that there was no need to hold elections in February 2022 as the tenure of the Office Bearers would be completed in April 2022. They contended that the enhancement of tenure of the Office Bearers by BCI was violative of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.
The Petitioners submitted that women representation in State Bar Council was negligible and women Lawyers did not have any protection. Also, there were no welfare schemes for women Advocates.
It was sought that the BCI shall be directed to undertake welfare schemes for Advocates stating that no effective work had been done by the BCI during the pandemic.
The Petition raised objection with respect to the establishment of India International Law University, Goa and Indian Institute of Law, Bhubaneswar. It was contended that the BCI should directly hold certain programmes like Moot Court Competitions instead of conducting it through the Bar Council of India Trust.
However, the BCI had stated in its press release that the Government of Goa had transferred 50 acres of land to BCI and its Trust for the establishment of International Law University at Goa.