Delhi High Court seeks BCI, BCD response on plea to hold polls to elect 25 BCD members

The Delhi High Court recently issued notice to the Bar Council of India (BCI) and Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) on a plea seeking directions to immediately hold polls to election twenty-five members of the BCD..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna directed the BCD and BCI to file their responses and listed the case for further consideration on January 31, 2024..The order was passed on a petition filed by a lawyer named Awanish Kumar who had earlier contested the elections of the BCD.Kumar said that the last elections to the BCD for the posts of 25 members was held in March 2018 and the next elections were due in June 2023. However, no process for elections has been initiated till now.Instead, a letter was written by the BCD to BCI in March 2023 seeking extension of the tenure of its members by six months. The BCI wrote back on June 20, 2023 informing the BCD that it has extended the tenure and the same shall last for six months.The petitioner argued that BCI and few members of BCD are in “illegal collusion” to usurp and monopolise the functioning of the BCD and were delaying fresh elections on a frivolous ground of verification of non-practising advocates."The identification and verification of non practicing advocate and verification of their certificates is an unending process and election cannot be delayed for the said frivolous reason,” the plea said..Kumar has also challenged a notification issued by the BCI on June 23, 2023 through which it repealed Rule 30 and 32 of the Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015.As per the new rule, if the term of elected members of any bar council is likely to expire due to delay in process of identification of non-practising advocates or delay in preparing the electoral roll, the BCI may allow the officer bearers to continue function beyond their extended tenure.