In a significant observation during the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Elections 2025, the Supreme Court on May 22 clarified that no further reservation for women is needed in the posts of Senior Executive Members. The Court noted that 3 out of the 6 elected candidates are women, which meets the minimum representation criteria laid down earlier.
A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan emphasized that the Court’s earlier order was about ensuring minimum representation, not enforcing strict reservation.
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“We are informed that out of six candidates declared elected, three are women candidates. That being so, it is clarified that the object of minimum representation to be given to the women candidates among the Senior Executive Members has been successfully achieved. No further reservation is required,” the Court stated.
The earlier directive, issued on May 6, 2025, had mandated that elections to the SCBA be held on May 20, 2025, with specific reservation requirements — the post of Secretary reserved for a woman, and 1/3rd of the posts in both Executive Committee (3 out of 9) and Senior Executive Committee (2 out of 6) to be reserved for women.
The current issue emerged after four women contested for Senior Executive posts, and three of them won. Advocate Kumud Lata Das raised a concern, arguing that posts 5 and 6 were supposed to be reserved for women, but Ashok Panigrahi, a male candidate, was elected at position 5.
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However, the Court clarified that reservation only applies if fewer than two women are elected based on votes.
Justice Viswanathan noted, “See it as minimum 2 (women) in Member Executive.”
Justice Kant added, “You don't need reservation. You need only some space to come out and compete.”
The Court also explained that if enough women win based on merit, no reservation is activated.
“If all 9 are women, that can be. But if nobody comes in the top 9, you keep going down till you get 3. That is the law,” said Justice Viswanathan.
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Das mentioned that in the 2023 SCBA elections, only one woman was elected, who was the Treasurer. She urged the Court to replace the term “reservation” with “representation” to avoid confusion in future interpretations.
“Your understanding of the order is wrong. Order says minimum 2 positions will be given,” clarified Justice Viswanathan.
Justice Kant concluded, “Let’s not be greedy now. Our object was to ensure representation. This year’s outcome reflects that. Very effective representation… shows members are going by merit.”
Last year, on May 2, 2024, the Court had introduced the 1/3rd women reservation for SCBA elections on an experimental basis, citing under-representation.
With this year’s results achieving that goal naturally, the Court underlined that merit-based victories from women candidates represent a positive shift and no further mandatory reservation is currently needed.
Case no. – Diary No. 13992/2023
Case Title – Supreme Court Bar Association v. BD Kaushik
