Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai Elected Supreme Court Bar Association President

Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai has been elected as the new President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (2026-27). He will be taking over the charge from Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, the SCBA President for 2025-26.

Rai secured 822 votes as opposed to 451 votes secured by the next contender, Senior Advocate Anupam Lal Dass. The other candidates were Senior Advocates Aadish Agarwalla (412 votes), Gaurav Bhatia (370), Sukumar Pattjoshi (269), Mahalakshmi Pavani (128) and Siddharth Mridul (217).

The early estimates indicate that 2794 votes were cast (approx.) with 82% polling percentage.

In the pre-poll presidential debate, Rai had supported scrapping of the sequencing system at the Supreme Court and voiced a commitment to welfare measures for advocates. He also promised medical security cover of up to Rs.50 lakhs and merit-based scholarship for children of SCBA members.

Notably, Rai had contested for the post of SCBA President last year as well alongwith Adish Aggarwala, when they were defeated by Vikas Singh. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal was the SCBA President before Singh. Rai was the SCBA Vice President during the 2023-24 term.

In April, the Supreme Court had directed this year's Election Committee to ensure completion of the entire election process, including declaration of results, by August 5. It passed an order introducing electoral reforms in SCBA, but later, modified the order to defer the reforms to 2027. The Court also ordered the holding of the elections around August 18.