Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday said that members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners would not be entitled to either vote or contest the election for the office bearers of the apex body of lawyers.

“The members of the SCBA, whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners, shall not be entitled to either vote for election of the office bearers of the SCBA or to contest any of the posts for which elections would be held by,” said an apex court bench of Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale.

After preparation of the final list of the regular practitioners, each member shall give a written intimation to the association whether he was a member of another court annexed bar, the judgment read.

Justice Panchal said that it would be mandatory for a member, whose name was included in the list, to give a permanent declaration that he would vote only in the SCBA and would not vote in any of the election of any high court bar association or district bar association or taluka bar association or associations of quasi-judicial bodies.

A copy of this declaration shall be displayed on the website of the SCBA as well as on the notice board of the SCBA, the judgment said.

The court said that such an information would be sent to all the bar associations.

“Once such a declaration has been given, it will be valid till it is revoked and once it is revoked a member shall forfeit his right to vote or contest any election to any post to be conducted by the SCBA, for a period of three years from the date of revocation,” said the judges.

For the identification of the regular practicing lawyers appearing in the matters before the apex court, the judges said that the criteria adopted by the court for allotment of chambers should be adopted by the SCBA.

Under the said criteria, an advocate on record has to do 20 filings of cases in a year, a lawyer has to appear in 50 cases and an arguing counsel has to argue 50 cases to be eligible for the allotment of a chamber.

This court recommended names of three senior counsel - K.K. Venugopal, P.P. Rao and Ranjit Kumar - as the members of a committee for implementing its directions.