Supreme Court: While considering the unanimous prayer for notification of the time schedule for conducting elections of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) as the term of the existing office bearers will be expiring on 19-05-2025; the Division Bench of Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan, JJ., issued the following directions:
-
The Court directed that in the ensuing election for 2025-2026, the post of Secretary of the SCBA shall be exclusively reserved for a woman candidate. In addition, 1/3rd seats in the Executive Committee i.e., 3 out of 9 shall be exclusively reserved for women candidates. Similarly, 1/3rd seats out of the Senior Executive Members i.e., 2 out of 6 shall also be reserved for women candidates.
-
The election of the office bearers of the SCBA and the Executive Committee shall be held on 20-05-2025 on the basis of voter list as was finalised in the elections for the year 2024. Apart from those who are included in the voter list for 2024, all such other members who have acquired eligibility upto 28-02-2025, shall also be included in the voter list.
-
The Court also appointed the Election Committee comprising of (i) Jitendra Mohan Sharma, Sr. Advocate; (ii) Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Advocate; and, (iii) Mahalakshmi Pavani, Sr. Advocate.
-
The counting of votes shall commence on 20-05-2025 and the result shall be declared preferably on the same date or on 21-05-2025. The Election Committee shall be at liberty to co-opt for any other member, if so required. The current office bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association will extend full cooperation and provide necessary facilities to the Election Committee for conducting the smooth and fair election.
Directions related to Report submitted by Justice (Retd.) L. Nageswar Rao:
The Court said out that former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice L. Nageswar Rao had in pursuance with the Court’s request dated 24-2-2025, had submitted his report containing various recommendations aiming to usher reforms in the composition and the mode of election of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
However, the Court pointed out that if the elections are required to be conducted within a short time as desired by the Members, then it won’t be feasible to give effect to those recommendations at this stage.
Therefore, the Court directed that:
-
The report submitted by Justice (Retd.) L. Nageswara Rao shall be uploaded on the website of the SCBA. While no challenge to that report will be entertained, the members of the SCBA are welcome to give their suggestions for modification/deviation or for expansion of the recommendations made in that report.
-
The recommendations made by Justice (Retd.) L. Nageswara Rao or the suggestions that may be received from the members of the SCBA shall be considered in due course of time for future implementation.
[Supreme Court Bar Association v. B.D. Kaushik, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 1051, decided on 6-5-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For parties: Mr. Vikas Singh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Deepika Kalia, Adv. Ms. Vasudha Singh, Adv. Mr. Sudeep Chandra, Adv. Mr. Nitin Saluja, AOR Ms. Kumud Lata Das, AOR Mr. Aman Anand, Adv. Ms. Pooja Rathore, Adv. Mr. Harsh Ajay Singh, Adv. Ms. Annwesha Deb, Adv. Mr. Sourabh Suman, Adv. Petitioner-in-person Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Ms. Rachana Shrivastava, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vikrant Yadav, Adv. Dr. Sandeep Singh, Adv. Ms. Sasmita Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Susheel Tomar, Adv. Mr. Vikas Bansal, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Nandini Gupta, Adv. Mr. Shashank Shekhar, AOR Mr. Parmanand Pandey, AOR Mr. B. K Chaudhary, Adv. Mr. Arun Kumar, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pandey, Adv. Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Mr. Shivaji M. Jadhav, AOR Mr. Tanveer A. Khan, AOR Mrs. Seema Tanveer, Adv. Mr. R.S. Mishra, Adv. Mr. Keshav Rai, Adv. Mr. Pritam Singh, Adv. Mr. Gopal Sharan Pathak, AOR Mr. Dinesh Kumar Garg, AOR Mr. Shashi Kant Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shobha Gupta, Sr. Adv. Mr. Deepak Prakash, AOR Mr. Sriram P., Adv. Ms. Jyoti P. Deborah, Adv. Ms. Komal, Adv. Mr. Ravi Kant, Adv. Mr. Chetan Jadon, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, AOR Mr. Rajesh Ranjan Prasad, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Lamba, Adv. Mr. Mohit Kumar Gupta, Adv. Mr. Gaurav Yadav, Adv. Mr. Amir Yadav, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Saurav Sharma, Adv. Mr. Vijaynand Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Jeevan R. Patil, Adv. Mr. Vikas Jain, Adv. Ms. Anjani Kumar Mishra, AOR Ms. Deepa Joseph, Adv. Mr. Sriram P., AOR Mr. Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. Alok Singh, Adv. Ms. Anjali Patel, Adv. Dr. A.P. Yadav, Adv. Mr. Amarendra Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, AOR Ms. Sonia Mathur, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ajay Amrit Raj, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Bishnu Prasad Tiwari, Adv. Dr. Sandeep Singh, Adv. Mr. Shashank Shekhar, AOR Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Chandra Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Shubhi Bhardwaj, Adv. Mr. Ajay Amritraj, Adv. Mr. Anil Kumar Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Singh, Adv. Mr. A. Nagar, Adv. Mr. Vikrant Rana, Adv. Mr. Sandeep, Adv. Mr. Tripurari Ray, Adv. Mr. Arun Kumar, Adv. Mr. Birendra Kumar, Adv. Mr. Parmanand Pandey, AOR Mr. Tarun Kant Samantray, Adv. Mr. Gautam Das, Adv. Mr. Chandra Sekhar Panda, Adv. Mr. Amrendra Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Biswanath Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Adish C. Aggarwala, Sr. Adv. Dr. Vivek Sharma, Adv. Mr. K.R. Chitra (in person) (Intervenor) Dr. Vivek Sharma, Adv. Mr. Vikas Jain, Adv.
