The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTNP) to identify all registered bar associations, across the State as well as the union territory, to which elections had not been conducted for long in violation of their bylaws, and make sure that the elections are conducted in a free, fair and democratic manner.
A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and C. Kumarappan ordered that the BCTNP should conduct an audit of all the bar associations registered with it and appoint special officers to the associations to which elections had not been conducted even after the expiry of the tenure of the office-bearers. The special officers, in turn, must conduct elections within four months.
Making it clear that there should not be any violation of the ‘one Bar, one vote’ rule, meaning that no advocate should be allowed to exercise his/her franchise in more than one bar association, the judges granted liberty to the BCTNP to approach the police seeking protection for the conduct of the elections. The judges also reminded the lawyers of the need to maintain decorum and dignity.
If the elections could not be conducted to any bar association or if any grave illegality or irregularity was detected, the BCTNP should derecognise such association and in the event of such action, the Registrar General of the High Court or the Principal District Judge concerned must take appropriate steps to resume the public premises that had been allotted to such association, the Bench ordered.
Since there were also complaints of many lawyers resorting to undesirable activities in court complexes by misusing their political leanings, the judges directed the Directors General of Police in Tamil Nadu as well as Puducherry to deploy adequate number of police personnel to all court complexes within four weeks and report compliance before the court by next month.
WOMEN LAWYERS’ ASSOCIATION
Passing separate orders in another writ petition, the Division Bench directed the BCTNP to conduct election to the Women Lawyers’ Association (WLA) functioning from the high court campus before September 30 this year, by appointing an election officer and adequate number of other officials to assist the officer.
The Bench directed the present office bearers of the association to hand over all details, including the entire list of members and other details connected with the administration of the association, to the secretary of BCTNP within two weeks and directed the latter to finalise the electoral list before conducting elections.
The judges said, the new office-bearers must ensure that future elections are conducted on time without giving room for complaints regarding undue delays and that the BCTNP could appoint a woman special officer if the elections were not conducted on time as per the bylaws.
The special officer must conduct the elections within four months of her appointment and all provisions of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act of 1975 must be followed scrupulously while administering the association, the Bench added.
