May,31,2016:
''One Bar, One Vote'' is a contentious issue with all the Bars Associations in Delhi and else where.
In a Landmark Judgment passed by the Division Bench of Justices HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. RAVINDRA BHAT and HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SIDDHARTH MRIDUL, it has been ruled that henceforth in all the Elections held in any Court attached Bar Association the Principle of One Bar, One Vote'' shall be followed.
Bench directed that ''One Bar, One Vote'' principle shall stand incorporated forthwith in relation to every Bar Association in Delhi (including the Delhi High Court Bar Association, the Delhi Bar Association, the New Delhi Bar Association, the Rohini, Shahdara, Saket and Dwarka Courts Bar Association and all other Court/Tribunals attached Bar Associations.
The concerned District Judge of each Court complex and the Registrar concerned of the Delhi High Court were also directed to ensure that no Advocate who has been allotted a chamber in any other Court complex, or has constructed or owns any chamber in the Tis Hazari or New Delhi Court complex, or has applied for any chamber in any of the said other court complex shall be eligible for allotment of a chamber and this shall be incorporated in respective Chamber Allotment Rules.
The Bench observed,''The Supreme Court, suo motu, prescribed guidelines to identify advocates regularly practicing before the Supreme Court. In fact, this Court as well as all other District courts in Delhi should follow the principle of allotting chambers only to regularly practicing advocates as also the principle of „one advocate one chamber‟.
The Supreme Court commended application of „one bar one vote‟ principle. The Court held that one who exercises the right to vote in more than a single Bar association, forms a different class than a person who is a member of one Bar association, particularly, if such bar association is annexed to the Court where she or he regularly practices.
Even the Bar Council of India has approved the rule of ''one bar one vote‟.
There are two contradictory views espoused by members of the Delhi High Court Bar Association. The one advocated by its Secretary and members of the executive, excluding the President, support the Petitioners to highlight the influence of non-practicing/ irregularly practicing advocates on the election process and mis-utilization of chambers whereby the non-practicing advocates succeed in securing chambers and rent them out to others. It is emphasized that the indiscriminate admission of Advocates who do not have the High Court as their principal Court of practice, the affairs of the Court annexed bar associations increasingly vest with non-stake holders. Such membership is acquired only to cast votes in favour of their sponsors whenever they are candidates in the electoral fray.
Read the Judgment Here-
Delhi High Court Judgment of One Bar One Vote
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