P&H High Court stays HC Bar elections amidst allegations of “bogus” voters

Elections to Bar Associations, almost always a contentious topic, have once again come under judicial scrutiny. This time around, it is the elections for the Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association. And, if the relief sought for is granted, the P&H High Court may just end up following the election procedure followed by the Supreme Court Bar Association..Justice Augustine G. Masih, while placing the elections on hold, primarily relied on the fact that there at least 250 members of the Bar Association who had their subscription fees waived by the Bar Association. This is despite the fact that nothing in the rules of the Association allows for such a waiver..This Court cannot be a silent spectator to such blatant violation of the Rules and Regulations under its nose and shut its eyes to it. If that is allowed to continue, that would virtually be meaning that this Court, when the matter has been brought to its notice and is in the know of it, is permitting the election to continue where the Rules and Regulations of the Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association, Chandigarh, had been violated, is supporting such illegality which cannot be..Which is where the petition, filed by Ranjan Lakhanpal, ought to be given a closer look. In essence the petition argues that the Bar Association has deliberately allowed an influx of “non-practicing outsider” into the voter list, so as to gain an “unfair and undue” advantage in the elections..Lakhanpal’s petition gives an example where,.“[The] subscription of 97 people to the PHHCBA was approved in a single day and subscription fees of Rs 2500/ was waived off, for each one of them, for no legitimate reason.”.In fact, as mentioned earlier, the number of such waivers has crossed two hundred, a fact admitted to by the Bar Association itself..The petition also refers to resolution passed by the P&H Bar Council whereby the elections to other Bar Associations were pushed back to December. This, Lakhanpal argues,.[L]eads to a major influx of non-practicing advocates to vote in the upcoming elections of the HCBA which are scheduled to be held in April 2015..But Lakhanpal does not seek to merely remove these voters from the list. Instead he wants the Bar Association to replicate the model followed by the Supreme Court where only advocates with at least five appearances in the High Court are allowed to vote..So what happens next? Well, the Bar Association did challenge the order but failed to get any relief. All the nominations have been filed, and the next date of hearing fixed for April 22, one day before the elections are to be held. On that day, the Bar Association has been directed to,.[To] place the true factual position and specifically give the lists of members with regard to whom the Executive Committee or the Office-bearers of the Association have exercised the power of waiver in payment of admission fee and monthly subscription for the period between 1st April, 2014 to 31.03.2015 as also to put forth any defence showing the power/jurisdiction, if any, with the Executive Committee/Office-bearers of the Association to do so..You can read the interim order below..Image taken from here.