Counsel for the district courts bar associations on Monday argued before the High Court here that the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) had carried out amendments to its constitution and election by-laws bypassing the general body.
They were arguing before a Division Bench comprising Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru on a bunch of appeals against a Single Bench order, dismissing a plea by Rajiv Khosla, former president of the Delhi Bar Association, seeking an ex-parte injunction against the amendments Election to the DHCBA is scheduled on December 13.
The executive committee of the DHCBA had failed to convene the general body for getting approval for the amendments in 2012 and then in 2013, they argued.
The amendments were mala fide, self-serving and being implemented in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner by debarring all executive members of the bar associations from taking part in the election.
Charging that the DHCBA’s voters’ list was ‘fabricated’, the appellants submitted that though the bar licences of Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley stood suspended on account of holding office of profit, but their names had been included in it.
The appellants further submitted and the election to the DHCBA be held under the old rules.
While dismissing Mr. Khosla’s suit on October 13, Justice Vipin Sanghi had said that he had come to the court late despite knowing about the amendments well before the notification for holding the election to the Association was issued. He had also noted that the interim relief was sought after the election process had been set in motion.
Some of the important amendment are: associate members are not eligible to vote in the association’s election for two years after grant of membership; the term of the executive committee has been extended from one to two years; members of other bar associations have been debarred from standing in the DHCBA election if they have held office there three years before the amendments came into effect. The amendments came into force in October, 2012.
