The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has released its final list of candidates, after the phase of withdrawal of names is over. 

For the president’s post, there are six candidates, including the outgoing President, Dushyant Dave.  

The main fight, according to observers, is among Dave, Satya Prakash Singh (Former Judge of Allahabad high court and now senior advocate, Supreme Court), and Shivaji Munjajirao Jadhav, who is currently president of the  SC Advocates-on-Record Association.

For the Vice-President’s post, there are again six candidates.  Senior Advocates, June Chaudhari, Indu Malhotra, and Ajit Kumar Sinha are among the candidates.  Chaudhari is an outgoing senior executive member of SCBA

For the post of Honorable Secretary, there are 10 candidates.  Outgoing Joint Treasurer, Devashish Bharuka is among the candidates. Others include counsel for Uttar Pradesh Government, Gaurav Bhatia, and PIL advocate, VK Biju. There are seven candidates for the post of Joint Secretary, and five for Treasurer and four for Joint Treasurer.   

Amit Anand Tiwari, one of the outgoing executive members is seeking election as the Treasurer.

For the six Senior Executive Members’ posts, there are eight candidates.   Four of the outgoing SEMs are seeking reelection as SEMs.  They are PP Khurana, Manoj Prasad, Sukumar Pattjoshi, and Pramod Swarup.   For the nine posts of Executive Members, there are 45 candidates.  Of them, four are outgoing EMs.  They are Ms Gagan Deep Kaur, Aftab Ali Khan, Ms Ritu Bala Puri, and Ranbir Yadav.  

Some of the candidates expect stiff competition in this year’s SCBA election, scheduled on 11 December.  

“It won’t be a cakewalk, but those who were in the outgoing Executive Committee have a chance”, said one of the vice-presidential candidates.

Among the highlights of the election, some candidates have complimented the SCBA for the orderly conduct of elections, without depriving the usual excitement.  There will be no distribution of leaflets, notices etc. carrying candidates’ names, to avoid littering in the SC campus.  Moreover, to avoid intrusion of privacy, the candidates are allowed to message the voters through SMS only four times.  Ballot papers for the first time will have the candidates’ photographs and a 100-word resume for each.   

Senior Advocate, Jaideep Gupta, Chairman, Election Committee, has warned that those candidates violating the new code of conduct, as mentioned in the circulars, would face disciplinary action.