Elections to state bar councils on February 15

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Bar Council of India and state bar councils to start the elections on February 15, 2018, and complete them in six weeks.

A bench of Justices A.K. Agrawal and A.M. Sapre refused to postpone the elections as sought by some state bar councils on the ground that the process of verification of law degree certificates could not be completed. 

It was submitted that the electoral roll of some of the states could not be published in such a short time and objections are yet to be invited regarding names in the electoral roll

Taking into consideration all aspects, the Bench said, “We are not inclined to grant further time as prayed for by the counsel for the parties. However, we extend the date of  November 30, 2017, mentioned in the order dated 24.11.2017 as the date to publish electoral list, to January 15, 2018, and the elections shall start from February 15, 2018, and should  be completed within a period of six weeks. However, those states where the electoral roll is already published, the process be started from January 1, 2018.”

The petitioners urged the court to order immediate elections of the state bar council as the term expired long back. The bar council of India, and state bar councils, however, pressed for verification of the candidates to eliminate fake lawyers in order to bring improvement in the bar and to get deserving practicing advocates for bar councils. It said the verification process is yet to be completed. The Bar Council of India and the state bar councils have undertaken the massive exercise of verifying the law degrees and had collected applications from lawyers for verification of their law degrees as contemplated under the certificate and place of practice (verification) rules, 2015, framed by the BCI mandating the state bar councils to verify the original certificates of all practising lawyers.