The Delhi High Court has postponed the Bar elections in the national capital to December 13.

On October 1, a full bench comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Yashwant Varma issued this directive.

"Keeping in view the aforesaid Supreme Court order dated 26th September, 2024 as well as the fact that the GBM has been called for on 07th October, 2024, and the process of nomination of candidates, which normally takes twenty one days, can begin only post Supreme Court hearing on 16th October, 2024 (as on that date one will know which seat has been reserved for lady candidates), the date of election to all the Bar Associations is postponed to 13th December, 2024."

The Court was addressing an application from the Secretary of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) requesting the postponement of the upcoming elections, which were originally set for October 19. 

This follows two writ petitions filed by several women lawyers. One petition sought to direct all district bar associations in the national capital to implement a 33 percent reservation for women in all Bar elections, while the other called for similar reservations in the Executive Committee of the DHCBA. 

After the High Court adjourned these matters to November 27, the women lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court to challenge the adjournment. During the hearing of these special leave petitions, the Supreme Court encouraged the Association to reserve at least four out of ten Executive Committee positions for women, including the role of Treasurer. 

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case again on October 16. In light of these developments, the High Court has now permitted the postponement of the Delhi Bar elections.

"In case the Delhi High Court Bar Association seeks extension of time for filing/ submission of Declaration Forms or for filing forms on the portal for issuance of Proximity Cards, they are at liberty to approach the Security Committee overseeing issuance of Proximity Cards," it clarified.

Notably, the general body of the DHCBA rejected a proposal on Monday that advocated for the reservation of posts for women in its Executive Committee.

Before the High Court, Senior Advocates Mohit Mathur, Kirti Uppal, Rakesh Tiku, and Inderbir Singh Alag, with Advocates Jattan Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Amit Chadha, Naginder Benipal, Shyam Sharma, Sanjay Dewan, Bandana Kaur Grover, Dhan Mohan, Rajat Manchanda, Nishant Anand, Gayatri Puri, Nitesh Mehra, Siddharth Tripathy, Ankit Siwach, Ashish, Sandeep Kumar, Monu Kumar, Ayush Bisht, Kavish Sharma, Sumit Misra, Aman Chaudhary, and Harsh Kumar appeared for the DHCBA.

Advocates T Singdev, Abhijit Chakravarty, Tanishq Srivastava, Anum Hussain and Sourabh Kumar appeared for the Bar Council of Delhi.

Advocates Preet Pal Singh, Tanupreet Kaur, Akanksha Singh, Madhukar Pandey and Bhardwaj appeared for the Bar Council of India.

Advocates Gautam Das and PK Dash appeared for the original writ petitioners.

Advocates Shobha Gupta, Sanskriti Shakuntala Gupta, Simran, Inder Singh Saroha, Manjeet Mathur, and Atul Sharma represented the Delhi Bar Association.

In March of this year, the High Court mandated that elections for all bar associations in the national capital be conducted simultaneously on the same day, with October 19 designated as the election date.