Supreme Court’s instructions to BCI: There should be 10% co-option of women’s representation in state bar councils.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Bar Council of India (BCI) to formulate a uniform, transparent and fair method for the 10 per cent co-option share for women’s representation in state bar councils. The Supreme Court said that the suggestion of BCI seemed quite fair. The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice V Mohana observed that the elections for most of the state bar councils had either been completed or were about to be completed.

Now only one issue was left in the proceedings that how to fill the additional 10 percent seats earmarked for women through co-option. During the hearing, BCI told the court that it has made the rules for co-option and is ready to place them before the court.

In the previous instructions, there was talk of 30 percent representation of women.

The bench reminded that its earlier instructions had called for 30 percent representation for women lawyers, of which 20 percent was to be through elections and 10 percent through co-option. Ultimately, the court empowered advocate Radhika Gautam on behalf of BCI to prepare a uniform process for co-option after consulting the newly elected members of the State Bar Council and other concerned parties.

CJI responded to concerns related to Union Territories

During Tuesday’s hearing, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora raised concerns related to smaller states and union territories. Referring to Goa, he said that despite having a bar of about 4 thousand members, the state often does not get representation in the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. He said that similar problems are faced in Daman and Diu and many north-eastern states also.

The CJI acknowledged this concern and said that these are real issues. When Arora requested that state-specific factors also be considered while formulating the co-option process, the bench indicated that the BCI could seek advice from state bar councils on such specific issues.

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