Supreme Court directs for reserving post of Treasurer for woman in Bengaluru's Advocates Association

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that the post of treasurer of Advocates Association, Bengaluru would be exclusively earmarked for women candidates.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh pointed out there is no bar in regulations to reserve a post for women.

"We find from the regulations that there are no express provisions barring earmarking or reservation of a post for the women candidates in the Advocates Association, Bengaluru. The regulations are completely silent to that effect. That being so, we are prima facie of the view that there is no legal impediment against providing adequate representation to the women advocates in the composition of governing council of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru," the bench said.

The bench invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice to issue this direction.

"The post of treasurer of Advocates Association, Bengaluru shall be exclusively earmarked for women candidates. For this purpose, the High-Powered Committee and the Chief Returning Officer shall extend the date for inviting nominations and if so required, the date of election can also be deferred for a few days. However, such a decision shall be to the entire discretion of the High-Powered Committee and the Chief Returning Officer," the bench said.

The court also directed the High-Powered Committee and Chief Returning Officer will also consider the desirability of ensuring that at least 30 per cent of elected members of the Governing Council of Advocates Association, Bengaluru are women advocates.

In this regard, the court said, the directions issued by it in the matter of High Court and District Court Bar Associations in NCT of Delhi would apply mutatis mutandis in the case of Advocates Association, Bengaluru also.

The matter before the apex court arose out of a petition filed by Deeksha N Amruthesh against the Karnataka High Court's order of January 8, which pointed out that there is no provision or reservation for women for any post under those regulations.

"As regard to the orders passed by this court from time to time, the High Court has rightly pointed out that those orders have been passed by this court invoking its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India," the bench said.

After hearing senior advocate Lakshmy Iyengar and others for the petitioners, the court passed the order and scheduled the matter for consideration on March 3, 2025.