BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed a batch of petitions filed for directions for reservation for women advocates in the governing council and managing committee of Advocates' Association of Bengaluru in the election scheduled to be held on February 2.
Justice R Devdas dismissed the petitions filed by the Karnataka Federation of Women Lawyers, advocate Deeksha N Amrutesh and others seeking directions for 33 per cent reservation for women candidates in the ensuing elections to be held to the AAB for the year 2025-28.
However, the court said that it is open for the petitioners to approach the Supreme Court which is dealing with the issue of reservation for women in all Bar Associations across the country.
The court stated that the final voter's list was published on January 2, 2025, and the calendar of events was issued on Wednesday. Therefore, the code of conduct has come into operation already. Having regards to the settled position of law, no courts can pass any order which would interfere in the process of election. Under such circumstances, it is impermissible for this court to issue directions to AAB and the High Power Committee to provide certain posts to women without any provision in the bylaws, the court said.
Referring to directions issued during the proceedings, the court directed the authorities concerned to provide the Electronic Voting Machines and adequate police security for the elections. Senior counsel Vivek Subba Reddy, appearing for AAB, submitted that unless bylaws provide such reservation, directions cannot be issued to the AAB or the election officer to provide reservation. He also submitted that the term of the present managing committee has come to an end on December 19, 24 and when the term of the previous committee has come to an end, no statement can be made on behalf of the AAB to provide the reservation.
He also submitted that he was the president of the AAB till the term ended on December 19. At present, since the term of the committee has come to an end, he will not be in a position to make any submission to the arguments made by senior counsels representing petitioners, although he welcomes their move. He submitted that immediately after the elections, the proposal of the reservation will be placed before the Association to amend the bylaws to provide reservation. However, at this stage, there is no such provision in bylaws, he argued.