Karnataka HC grants AAB interim relief on plea to restrain State Bar Council from recognising new Bar bodies

The Karnataka High Court recently granted the Advocates Association of Bengaluru (AAB) interim relief on a plea challenging the proposed formation of a parallel lawyers' association [Advocates Association Bangalore v. Karnataka State Bar Council and anr]..The AAB has alleged that some lawyers have been trying to register a new 'High Court Bar Association' with ulterior motives. The AAB's plea calls on the Court to restrain the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) from permitting the establishment of any such new or alternative lawyers' association in Bengaluru.The Bench of Justice BM Shyam Prasad on August 23 directed the KSBC not to process any new Bar association applications without the Court’s permission."The respondents are directed not to act on any pending applications or receive applications without the leave of this Court for the purposes of recognition or registration of the Association for the purposes of the (Karnataka Advocates Welfare Fund) Act," the order said. .The Court will hear the matter next on August 30..The AAB's plea states that it was shocked to know that a lawyers' association named the High Court Bar Association was being formed.The registration of this new association was challenged by AAB before the District Registrar of Societies earlier, following which the registration was suspended on August 21. The AAB has contended that neither the KSBC nor its nominated Chairman can simply endorse the formation of lawyers' associations at their whims and fancies. .The plea also highlighted that the KSBC's term expired three years back, and that it is presently functioning through ad-hoc committees.While so, the AAB has argued that the State Bar Council's nominated Chairman, Mittalakod SS, endorsed the formation of the new 'High Court Bar Association' on August 7, with ulterior motives, to divide the Bar in the face of future Bar Council elections. The AAB recounted that it had recently criticised the KSBC Chairman for not speaking proper English during his speech at an event held to welcome the then-newly appointed Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru to the Karnataka High Court. The AAB had sent a letter to the BCI on the issue and sought Mittalakod's removal from his post as KSBC Chairman, on the grounds that he had humiliated Karnataka by mispronouncing English words.The AAB has submitted that it was because of these developments that Chairman Mittalakod endorsed the formation of the proposed 'High Court Bar Association', to employ a strategy of divide and rule among lawyers. Senior advocate KN Phanindra was among the senior counsel who appeared for the AAB before the High Court on August 23.