Supreme Court Issues Key Directions to Telangana Bar Council

The Supreme Court has ruled that committees of Bar Councils cannot be appointed through a nomination process and that elections must be conducted in accordance with the law. The observation came on Friday while hearing a petition filed by the Telangana Bar Council challenging the interim stay imposed by the Bar Council of India (BCI) on the appointment of its committees. Venkat Yadav, Ponnam Ashok Goud, Rohini Smith, Sunil Goud and M.A.K. Mukeed had complained to the BCI that the Telangana Bar Council had not followed the provisions of the Advocates Act, 1961, while constituting its Executive, Enrolment, Privileges, Library, Finance and Disciplinary Committees. Acting on the complaint, the BCI imposed an interim stay on the appointments on October 23. The Telangana Bar Council challenged the decision before the Supreme Court on October 30. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan, heard the petition on Friday.

Appearing for the Telangana Bar Council, senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu and advocate-on-record P. Mohit Rao argued that the allegations of unilateral appointments were incorrect. They submitted that 23 members had been elected to the Bar Council and that 18 of them, constituting a majority, had entrusted the chairman with the responsibility of appointing the committees. They also argued that the chairman had the authority to nominate members when there was no contest in the election process. However, the bench rejected this argument and questioned how the statutory election procedure could be bypassed. It clarified that the election process must be initiated even if the committees were likely to be elected unanimously. The court observed that declaring appointments unanimous without starting the election process could lead to confusion. After the Telangana Bar Council expressed its willingness to conduct elections, the Supreme Court disposed of the petition, directing it to complete the elections in accordance with the law and submit a detailed report to the BCI. The interim stay imposed by the BCI will remain in force until then.