Supreme Court Lays Down Revised Schedule For Various State Bar Council Elections; Forms Committees To Monitor

The Supreme Court today revised the time schedule for holding of State Bar Council elections across 16 States/UTs and ordered that the same be held in 5 phases between January 31, 2026 and April 30, 2026.

To facilitate the elections, the Court further constituted High Powered Election Monitoring Committees (HPEMCs) at regional levels as well as a High Powered Supervisory Committee (to be headed by a former Supreme Court judge). The members of the Committees will be notified by the Court in its uploaded order.

It further permitted advocates registered with State Bar Councils, whose verification of law degrees is still pending, to cast votes on a provisional basis. Their voting is subject to "necessary consequences", as the case may be.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order. It may be recalled that earlier, noting that the elections of State Bar Councils across India had not been held since many years, the Court asked the Bar Councils to hold the elections by January 31, 2026.

The new schedule however provides that:

- State Bar Councils of UP and Telangana shall conclude elections by 31.01.2026 (first phase);

- State Bar Councils of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Tripura shall conclude elections by 28.02.2026 (second phase);

- State Bar Councils of Rajasthan, P&H, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat shall conclude elections by 15.03.2026 (third phase);

- State Bar Councils of Meghalaya, Manipur, and Maharashtra shall conclude elections by 31.03.2026 (fourth phase); and

- State Bar Councils of Kerala, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, and Assam shall conclude elections by 30.04.2026 (fifth and final phase).

As per the Court's order, the elections shall be conducted under the direct supervision of HPEMCs and no further extension of time shall be granted.

The High Powered Supervisory Committee has been constituted on a pan-India basis. It shall be headed by former judge of the Supreme Court and comprise 1 former Chief Justice of a High Court as well as 1 renowned senior advocate who does not contest elections of Bar Councils/Bar Associations. The Court indicated during the hearing that the members of the Monitoring Committees would be former High Court judges.

Verification of lawyers' degrees

During the hearing, the parties pointed out a practical difficulty experienced by state bar councils in relation to verification of law degrees of advocates registered with them. In this regard, the Court had earlier orally indicated that the verification of genuineness of LLB certificates of advocates shall not per se lead to indefinite postponement of the elections.

At the time, it was informed that the verification process had revealed figures of fake voters. Hearing the same, the Court lamented that there are not only voters with fake LLB degrees, but sometimes even hardened criminals come in lawyers' robes and indulge in violence.

Today, the Court noted that in terms of its earlier directions, all State Bar Councils are obligated to verify genuineness of law degrees of advocates who are their members. "Such directions were necessitated on account of fake degree holders masquerading as lawyers", it said.

The Court held that there cannot be any exception to compliance with the directions for verification. Nevertheless, verification being an ongoing process, cannot be a justified or valid ground to keep the elections in abeyance. "In our opinion, verification is akin to delimitation process which cannot be an impediment in conducting elections of State Bar Councils," the Court observed.

In this backdrop, the Court directed that all universities/deemed universities/law universities shall depute a special team of their officers which shall include a senior faculty member from law department for verification of degrees that may have been received from State Bar Councils. The same shall be done within 1 week from date of receipt of degree. Universities shall be entitled to charge fee for such verification strictly in accordance with rules and no additional demand shall be raised for verification merely because the court has directed verification in a timebound manner.

It further said that while State Bar Councils as well as HPEMCs shall adhere to election schedule as is laid down by the Court, all those advocates who applied for verification of degrees shall be permitted to cast vote subject to necessary consequences as the case may be. Where on verification of a law degree it is found to be fake/not genuine/not recognized, the degree holder will not be permitted to participate in the election process.

Election schedule laid down by the Court

The Court ordered that for state bar councils where elections are required to be conducted by 31.01.2026, the following shall be the time schedule -

- Preparation and publication of electoral roll (after or pending verification): 15 days from 20 November

- Inviting objections: 7 days

- Publication of final voter list: 7 days

- Filing of nominations: 7 days

- Scrutiny of nominations: 2 days

- Publication of final list of candidates: 1 day

- Withdrawal of candidature: 3 days

- Elections as per preferential system of votes: 20 days

The order further mentioned that counting shall start under direct supervision of HPEMCs, for which necessary directions will be issued by the committees. Result of first phase shall be declared by 31 January.

"Where any such exercise has already been undertaken by State Bar Councils, HPEMCS may exempt/dispense with such process. All other necessary directions shall be passed by HPEMCs and any aggrieved person may approach that committee", the Court added.

The same timelines shall be followed by other HPEMCs also. Any person who is aggrieved by an order/direction of an HPEMC can approach the High Powered Supervisory Committee, whose decision shall be final. No civil court/High Court shall entertain any petition against the decision of the High-Powered Supervisory Committee.

Briefly put, the matter pertains to a challenge to Rule 32 of the Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015, which empowers BCI to extend the term of State Bar Council members beyond the statutory limits prescribed under the Advocates Act 1961. Notice on this petition was issued in 2023.

Appearance: Senior Advocates Madhavi Divan, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Vibha Datta Makhija, Rakesh Khanna, and Manan Kumar Mishra

Case Title: M. VARADHAN v. UNION OF INDIA & ANR., WP(C) No. 1319/2023 (and connected cases) 

Click Here To Read/Download Order