State Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana High Court

CHANDIGARH: In an important move effecting legal fraternity in the region, the State Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana High Court on Sunday passed a resolution fixing experience limit for those interested in contesting election for various posts of office bearers of the bar association. As per the new directive, only those lawyers having minimum experience of five-year practice as members of a bar association would be eligible for contesting the election of president of the high court and respective district bar associations. As of now, any lawyer, irrespective of experience, who is registered member of the high court bar or the district court bar association, was eligible to contest elections. The state bar council took this decision on Sunday in its full house meeting held at the Law Bhawan in Chandigarh. However, while passing this resolution, the state bar council rejected the recommendation of Bar Council of India, apex body of lawyers in the country, which suggested to fix the minimum experience limit for contesting the bar association elections at 20 years. As per the new conditions, any lawyer willing to contest for the post of president in the high court bar, district court or any subordinate court’s bar associations should have minimum five years of experience as an advocate. For the post of secretary, the age condition for contesting the election has been restricted to three years. However no limit of experience has been fixed for contesting the elections for the posts of vice-president, joint secretary, treasures, etc. These orders would be applicable for the elections of the bar association of Punjab and Haryana High Court, various district and subordinate courts of the state of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. Bar associations of consumer commissions, consumer forum, tax tribunals would also come under the purview of this new condition. Talking about the development, Pratap Singh, chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana said that the motive behind fixing of minimum age for contesting the bar association election was aimed at encouraging mature member to participate in the development of the bar so that the professional standards of the respective bars could be uplifted.