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Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench today issued notice to the Awadh Bar Association’s Elder’s committee and the returning officer in a plea challenging the result of recent 2021 Bar Election held on September 25.

Advocate Anand Mani Tripathi was contesting for the post of Association President and lost it by a single vote. He made a representation before the Association seeking recounting but to no avail. Thereby, he came knocking on court’s door seeking relief.

The matter was heard before the Division Bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Justice Suresh Kumar Gupta and after taking the cognizance of Tripathi’s plea, bench issued notice and directed for the matter to be next listed on October 22.

The Awadh Bar Association election 2021 has been making to the news since day one. The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on August 14, however, following a ruckus that took place during polling inside the premises of the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench, the elections were postponed to September 25.

After August 14, it was informed to the court that the candidates along with their supporters, entered into voting arena and indulged in tearing ballot papers and in pushing female lawyers and misbehaving with them.

Following this mishappening, High court took suo motu cognizance of the unruly behavior of the lawyers during the election calling for a report from Senior Registrar with respect to security and unlawful activities, which had taken place and also sought submission of videos, photographs of the incident.

Later on, court issued an array of directions on August 24 to the responsible authorities to make sure successful and safe polling on September 25.

The Court had made it mandatory that for a Member of Awadh Bar Association to participate in the election 2021 either for the purpose of contesting the election or casting his/her vote, among other conditions, to be a regular practitioner of the High Court, Lucknow specifying such eligibility.

However, on August 27, it was suggested to the Court that minimum of 20 filings of cases in a year for last three years i.e., 2018, 2019, 2020 be relaxed considering the Covid-19 pandemic prevailing in the year 2020 and 2021 as well as the reduction in the overall filing of the cases in the High Court.

Thereafter, court amended the criteria and relaxed the condition by bringing down the number of minimum cases for 2019 to 10 and for 2020 to 5 for contesting or voting.

Accordingly, the elections were held on September 25, wherein the present complainant lost he election for the post of Bar President by a mere one vote.

Now the matter is in court’s hand to see what further unfolds.

Case Title: Anand Mani Tripathi v. Bar Council of U.P. thru. Chairman/Secy. & Ors           

(Photo credits: Legal Correspondent for Lawbeat Ratna Singh)