Karnataka High Court: While considering the instant petition concerning providing reservation for women advocates in Bengaluru Advocates Association Elections and in membership of the Governing Council and the Executive Committee of the Association; the Bench of R. Devdas, J*., dismissed the petitions stating that directions issued by the Supreme Court to provide reservation for women members of the Bar, were made under Article 142 of the Constitution and such power cannot be exercised by the High Court. The Court further pointed out that the Supreme Court has already commenced the process of calling for relevant information and data from all the High Court Bar Associations of the country in order to issue suitable directions enabling reservation of certain posts to the women members of the various Bar Association in the country
The Court stated that elections are required to be held in the Advocates Association on 02-02-2025, therefore, at this juncture, the request made on behalf of the petitioners cannot be accepted or conceded.
The petitioners had submitted that the Supreme Court in Fozia Rahman v. Bar Council of Delhi1 and Supreme Court Bar Assn. v. B.D. Kaushik, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 756, had deemed it fit to issue directions to provide reservation for women members of the Bar. Counsels for the petitioner further submitted that although a time frame has been fixed by the High Court in the connected writ petitions to hold elections to the Advocates’ Association, Bengaluru, nevertheless, it would not preclude the Court from issuing necessary direction.
Per contra, the respondents contended that the orders and directions issued by the Supreme Court would stem from the Article 142 of the Constitution and such directions cannot be issued by the High Court. It was further submitted that unless the Bye-laws provide for such reservation, directions cannot be issued to the Association or the Election Officer to provide reservation to the women advocate members of the Association. It was submitted that the request made by the women advocates and members of the Association, can be considered immediately after the elections are held and such a proposal will be put forth in the Association and suitable amendments will be sought to in the Bye-laws enabling reservation to certain posts in the Managing Committee and the Governing Council. However, at this stage when there is no provision for reservation in the Bye-laws of the Association, neither can the petitioners seek such direction at the hands of the Court, nor can the Association make any concession before the Court to provide reservation to any of the posts in the ensuring election.
Perusing the contentions, the Court opined that the directions issued by the Supreme Court in Fozia Rahman and BD Kaushik (supra) were under Article 142 of the Constitution and such powers cannot be exercised by the High Court.
The Court further observed that with the final voter’s list being published on 2-1-2025 and with publication of calendar of events, the code of conduct has come into operation from 02-01-2025, which means that it would be impermissible for the Court to issue any directions to the Election Officers or the High Power Committee, to provide reservation to certain posts in the Managing Committee or the Governing Council, without there being any such provisions in the bye-law.
The Court said that it is open for the petitioners to approach the Supreme Court to seek necessary directions in this regard.
[Deeksha N. Amruthesh v. State of Karnataka; Writ Petition No. 35836 of 2024, decided on 8-1-2024]
*Order by Justice R. Devdas
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Petitioners: Smt. Lakshmi Iyengar., Sr. Counsel A/W Sri. Amruthesh N P., Advocate;
Respondents: Sri. Mohammed Jaffar Shah., Aga For R1 To R4 Sri. G.Nataraj., Advocate For R5 Sri. Vivek Subbareddy., Sr.Counsel For Sri. Girish Kumar. R., Advocate For R6 Sri. Naveen Chandra .V. & Sri. H.V.Bhanu Prakash., Advocates For Impleading Applicants Smt. Jayna Kothari., Sr. Counsel For Sri. Naveen Chandra. V., Advocate
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1. Special Leave to Appeal (C) Nos. 24485/2024
