Celebration 'Anti-National' : PIL In Allahabad High Court Opposes Fund Allocation For Oudh Bar Association's 125th Anniversary Event

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea has been moved before the Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench), seeking a direction to restrain the authorities from allocating any fund or allotting the High Court's conference hall to the Oudh Bar Association (OBA) for its proposed program to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the society, scheduled on November 2, 2025. The plea has been filed by Ashok Pandey, a 63-year-old advocate based in Lucknow, praying for a writ of mandamus commanding the authorities (including the HC administration) not to provide any financial or infrastructural support to the OBA' event, which the petitioner calls an 'anti-constitutional' and 'anti-national' activity. In his detailed plea, Pandey states that the Oudh Bar Association was formed in 1901 by British lawyers practicing before the then Chief Court of Oudh. According to him, it was a society formed by the Britishers with the agenda to help the British government to capture the power of our country. The petition asserts that celebrating the 125th anniversary of such a society is an anti-national activity. "To celebrate the legacy of Britishers is anti-national and anti-constitutional activity and so nether any funds should allocated for this program nor any place to organise this function should be allotted", the plea states. Pandey argues that after independence and the creation of the 'High Court of Uttar Pradesh' under the Constitution, it was the duty of the advocates practicing here to form a new society attached with this High Court Bench. Instead, the continuation of the name Oudh Bar Association, Pandey argues, is highly improper. He adds that despite several requests by him over the years to the office bearers to include the term 'High Court' in the association's name and remove 'Oudh Bar', no action was taken. The petitioner has alleged that the High Court administration is allocating funds and allotting the conference hall for this event. Calling such allocation as 'highly improper', he has submitted that the Oudh Bar Association "should change its agenda and instead organize a seminar on problems before the judiciary". Against the backdrop of these submissions, the petition prays for the following reliefs: A writ of mandamus directing the concerned respondents not to allocate any fund and not to allot the conference hall to Oudh Bar Association for its program to organise the 125th anniversary of the society named as Oudh Bar Association. Any other suitable writ, order, or direction which the Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case as also in the interest of justice. The plea further states that the matter requires urgent hearing since it will become infructuous if not decided before the scheduled program on November 2, 2025 where apart from the Chief Justice and Judges of the High Court, even the Chief Justice of India (designate) has also been invited.

Celebration 'Anti-National' : PIL In Allahabad High Court Opposes Fund Allocation For Oudh Bar Association's 125th Anniversary Event

Sparsh Upadhyay

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