Six presidential candidates, including one female advocate, filed their candidature for the 16 December Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) executive committee 2013-14 elections before nominations closed yesterday.

Senior advocates PH Parekh and Kailash Vasdev, and advocates Poonam Parashar, Anil Kumar Jha, PK Jain and Kirpal Singh are currently contesting for the post of president, confirmed SCBA 2012-13 assistant secretary Sandeep Singh.

Parekh, who was the SCBA president for the fifth time in 2011-12, did not contest the 13 December 2012 elections, which was won by senior advocate MN Krishnamani. Vasdev was voted in the vice president for 2012-13, while Jain had withdrawn his presidential candidature just before the list closed last year.

Singh told Legally India that the final list of 151 candidates contesting the polls this time will be drawn up on 13 December, which is the last day for withdrawing candidatures.

In the 2012-13 SCBA elections senior advocates Adish Aggarwala and Ram Jethmalani had also withdrawn their candidature for president after controversial politicking before the elections, as reported by Legally India at the time.

The SCBA has drawn up a restricted list of voters based on the “one bar one vote” rule that was implemented by the body for the first time last year. Those voting in any other bar association elections in the country cannot vote in the SCBA elections. This has resulted in a compact list of 1656 voters this year, an increase of 284 since last year.

Candidates are elected by secret ballot by single distributive votes at the election, according to the SCBA election guidelines.

The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) has also introduced the “One bar one vote” rule for the first time for its 13 December polls. The amendment introducing the rule is currently under challenge from former Delhi Bar Association president Rajiv Khosla who was not allowed to file his nomination for the post of DHCBA president.