Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court today recorded the Bar Council of India's (BCI) statement that the election of the Punjab and Haryana State Bar Council will be announced within ten days and efforts will be made to complete the process by December 31, 2025.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi recorded, “BCI Chairman Mr. Manan Kumar Mishra assured us that election to the Punjab and Haryana State Bar Council will be notified within 10 days and an endeavour shall be made to conclude the elections by 31^st December 2025.”

After Justice Kant dictated the order, BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said that completing the process within 2025 may be difficult because, under the BCI Rules, the election procedure takes 180 days. Justice Kant asked the BCI that a committee headed by a retired High Court judge be constituted for supervising the election to Punjab and Haryana Bar Council. Mishra agreed to the direction.

Addressing lawyers who were raising various concerns, Justice Kant said, “Elections were not being held in bar councils. We have partially issued some directions, partially we have persuaded the BCI, and they have been very fair to take a stand that they want to conduct elections. Let us help to extend whatever cooperation we can so that elections are held and this democratic institutional setup is in place.”

Subsequently the Court also recorded that the election to the UP State Bar Council shall be concluded by January 31^st, 2026.

“It is informed that the elections for UP are likely to be notified very soon. Mr. Mishra assures us that elections for UP shall also be considered conducted by 31st January 2026. Meanwhile, an endeavour shall be made that wherever there are some genuine or bonafide objections/concerns regarding the voter list the same may be examined without prejudice to the rights of the affected party to eventually approach the Election Tribunal.”

The order was passed in various interlocutory applications mentioned today before the bench filed in writ petition challenging Rule 32, which was inserted in 2023 into the Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015. The petition contends that the Rule extends the tenure of elected members of the State Bar Councils beyond the period prescribed under the Advocates Act, 1961.

Earlier, on September 24, 2025, the Supreme Court had directed that elections to all State Bar Councils should be conducted, if not simultaneously, then in a phased manner, and completed by January 31, 2026.

Case no. – IAs in Writ Petition (C) No. 1319 of 2023

Case Title – M. Vardhan Union of India & Ors.