Uttam Kumar Pandey v. Secretary, State Bar Council Chhattisgarh

HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR WPC No. 1167 of 2021 Uttam Kumar Pandey S/o Late B.P. Pandey Aged About 64 Years Advocate, High Court Of Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur District Bilaspur Chhattisgarh.

---- Petitioner

Versus

1. Secretary, State Bar Council Chhattisgarh Bilaspur, High Court Campus , Bodari , District Bilaspur Chhattisgarh.

2. Appellate Committee Chhattisgarh State Bar Council Chhattisgarh High Court Campus, Bodari , District Bilaspur Chhattisgarh.

3. Shri C.K. Kesharwani, Advocate, President, Chhattisgarh High Court Bar Association, Bilaspur, District Bilaspur Chhattisgarh., ---- Respondents ________________________________________________________ For petitioner- Shri Rajesh Kumar Kesharwani, Advocate.

For respondent No.1- Shri Rajeev Shrivastava, Sr. Advocate with Shri Sourabh Sahu, Advocate.

Shri C.K. Kesharwani, respondent No.3 in person. Hon'ble Shri Justice Goutam Bhaduri Order 24/08/2021 Heard.

1.

The prayer in this petition is that against the election of the President, respondent No.3, Shri C.K. Kesharwani, Chhattisgarh High Court Bar Association, Bilaspur, a challenge was made by the petitioner before the Appeal Committee of the Chhattisgarh High Court Bar Association Election 2019-2021. The Appeal Committee by its order dated 5th June, 2020 had set aside the election. Against that the respondent No.3 who was elected President preferred an appeal before the State Bar Council of Chhattisgarh.

2.

Learned counsel for the petitioner would submit that the tenure of the President is going to end in October, 2021 and in the meanwhile if the appeal is not decided, the appeal and this petition will become infructuous,

therefore Appellate Committee of the State Bar Council Chhattisgarh may be directed to decide the appeal which is preferred by the respondent No.3 within a short period of time.

3.

Learned counsel for respondent No.1 would submit that they will abide by the orders passed by the Court.

4.

Shri C.K. Kesharwani, respondent No.3 would submit that the election would be declared today.

5.

Without going into such facts, since only limited prayer is made that the appeal pending before the State Bar Council may be directed to be decided, consequently, if the appeal which is pending before the State Bar Council is not decided within time and by efflux of time it becomes infructuous, then a different type of message will go to the public at large. Consequently, it is directed that the Appellate Committee, Chhattisgarh State Bar Council shall take appropriate steps to decide the appeal within a period of 10 days from today. It is made clear that this Court has not made any observation on the merits of the appeal and only time limit has been fixed considering the fact as the submissions are made that the tenure of the President is going to end in October, 2021. 6.

With such observation, the petition stands disposed of. Sd/- (Goutam Bhaduri) JUDGE gouri