The Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) new president, senior advocate Rupinder Singh Suri said that he won the 14 December SCBA election due to the support of “the top seniors and common lawyers”.

Suri commented: “I have been secretary of the SCBA in 1997, then vice president twice – once in 1999, then president of the Advocates on Record Association, then one [SCBA] election I fought for president alongside Mr MN Krishnamani and Mr KTS Tulsi. This time the beauty is that both Mr Krishnamani and Mr Tulsi have supported me.”

He added that Tulsi, Krishnamani and senior advocates Vivek Tankha and Kapil Sibal, who are all sitting members of the parliament, as well as “muslim voters” voted for him in this election and therefore “It’s a very wrong statement given by Mr Adish Aggarwala. We don’t fight on the basis of party affiliation but for the interest of the bar.”

Senior advocate Adish Aggarwala, who lost to Suri’s 423 votes by 50 votes, standing third after senior advocate Vikas Singh who lost by 20 votes, had claimed on Friday that Suri, who is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won the elections due to BJP support.

Aggarwala commented: “It is unfortunate that BJP decided to support Mr RS Suri. Earlier it was decided by BJP that they would not officially support any candidate. I should have been first choice as I am the co-author of a biography on prime minister Modi which has been published by British Publication House and having foreword from Mr Amit Shah.”

He added: “Mr Suri earlier lost four times with big margin. I lost twice, once by two votes and second time by 41 votes. I am writing about this episode to honourable prime minister and Mr Shah. Mr Suri is BJP member and I am not a member of any political party since birth. Involvement of political parties in SCBA elections is not good for independence of judiciary.”

Suri on Saturday told us that he thought support of “the top seniors and common lawyers” was behind his win. “I’ve got the support not because of the BJP but because I have delivered the goods in the past,” he said.

Krishnamani had defeated Suri by 136 votes in the 2013 SCBA elections, while Aggarwala had withdrawn his candidature from that election, as we then covered.

The number of votes cast were far fewer than last year when senior advocate Dushyant Dave won by a margin of 415 votes. 900 voters were deleted in the voter list churn this year.

An Advocate who voted in the 14 December elections commented: “[Suri won] because everyone was looking for someone who has decent merit and not just a politician so yes, Suri won because he is nice to everyone.”

Another SCBA member commented: “[Suri has] got a lot of goodwill. Plus he’s perceived as someone with a calm head who’ll resolve conflicts with composure rather than get into confrontations.”

One SCBA member said that Suri was “generally a popular candidate” who had “worked hard the entire year”. Senior advocates Kailash Vasdev and Rajiv Dutta were also contesting for president of the SCBA this time, as reported by us.