The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the order suspending former Delhi High Court Bar Association President (DHCBA) Rajiv Khosla and three other advocates from the Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) rolls for allegedly “manhandling, pushing and abusing” officials tasked with conducting the BCD elections. 

Khosla and others were also restrained from accessing the precincts of the Delhi High Court. The Court today also stayed that part of the order.

Justice Amit Bansal issued the directions after Khosla as well as advocates Aarti Tyagi, Anju Dixit and Shaheen Mansoori approached the High Court against BCD's April 26 order.

The Court has now listed Khosla and others' plea against their suspension for further hearing in October.

The action stemmed from an incident on April 25 at the Delhi High Court’s S-Block where Khosla and others allegedly misbehaved with Justice Talwant Singh and other members of the election committee and counting staff. It was also noted that the advocates used unparliamentary language and heaped abuse at Justice Singh and other members of the Election Committee. 

After the incident, Justice Singh and other members of the election committee – mostly retired Principal District and Sessions Judges – also informed the BCD that “they feel threatened and humiliated having undergone the trauma of unfortunate incident” and that they would not be able to undertake further counting of votes without proper security. 

In its order, the BCD has said that these advocates tarnished the integrity of the High Court precincts by their “unruly, rough & abusive behaviour”. 

Khosla and others moved the High Court against the BCD order, stating that the suspension order affected their right to livelihood as it suspended them without a hearing. The Court was also told that the move was in violation of the law.