Simultaneous Voting With Delhi Bar Elections, Use EVM, Increase Term : Suggestions Before Supreme Court On SCBA Electoral Reforms

In the matter pertaining to electoral reforms in the Supreme Court Bar Association, the SCBA recently filed suggestions recommending that its elections should be held simultaneously with the Delhi High Court Bar Association and District Bar Associations.

The SCBA also recommended that the term of the Executive Committee should be increased from 1 year to 2 years. It further suggested minimum appearances requirement for candidates wishing to contest in the elections.

The recommendations made by SCBA included the following:

- That not all advocates with 25 years' membership of SCBA may be allowed to vote, as the number would be as high as 6000 and many in that category are not regular practitioners before the Court;

- That entry to Supreme Court premises and use of Proximity Card should be considered for voting. Voting rights for Chamber allottees should also be based on 20 appearances in the concerned year;

- That candidates for the post of SCBA President should have 20 lead appearances in reported judgments in the preceding 10 years and those for the post of Vice-President must have 10 such appearances;

- That elections of SCBA should be held alongwith elections of Delhi High Court Bar Association and District Bar Associations. This way, tenure of the Executive Committee would also be enhanced to 2 years.

Earlier, the Election Committee constituted by the Court to conduct SCBA Elections this year gave the following suggestions:

- That senior advocates must have minimum 25 appearances in each of the preceding 2 years to be eligible to vote;

- That SCBA Executive Member posts be divided into 3 categories, that is, 3 posts each for who have been regular members of SCBA for upto 10 years, for 10-20 years and for above 20 years. Further, in each category, there shall be atleast 1 woman representative;

- That candidates for the post of SCBA President must have 20 appearances as 'lead counsel' (10 in reported judgments) in each of the 5 preceding calendar years;

- That candidates in SCBA elections make refundable security deposit alongwith nomination fee for contesting the elections. The same shall be refunded to those who get elected or receive more than 20% of the polled votes. The recommended amounts of such deposits are: Rs.1.5 lakhs for President, Rs.1 lakh for Vice-President, Rs.75000 for Hon. Secretary, Rs.35000 for Joint Secretary and Joint Treasurer, Rs.30000 for Senior Executive Member, and Rs.5000-25000 for Executive Member;

- That polling should take place by Electronic Voting Machines, expenditure for which can be partially met through security deposits;

- That tenure of the Executive Committee be extended to 2 years and elections be held in December instead of May;

- That Election Committee (to hold the elections) be constituted atleast 2 months prior to the date of polling. It can be more "broad-based", comprising 2 senior advocates and one advocate-on-record.

During a recent hearing of the matter, the Supreme Court said that the suggestions of SCBA and recommendations of the Election Committee be uploaded on the SCBA website. Following the uploading of the suggestions, members of the Supreme Court Bar may give their inputs/opinions to SCBA within 2 weeks, it added.

Case Title: Supreme Court Bar Association v. BD Kaushik, Diary No. 13992/2023