While Delhi, despite its cosmopolitan nature, is still heavily a Punjab-Haryanvi city, the same does not hold true for the bar, especially at the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court..Step into either of these courts and one can hear a lot of languages, be it Bengali, Marathi, Tamil or Malayalam. And now two of the bar associations of these courts are being headed by persons who have their roots in the extreme south of the country - Kerala. .Senior Advocate N Hariharan was elected President of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) on Sunday. He secured 2,967 votes and won by a margin of 87 votes pipping Senior Advocate Kirti Uppal who came second with 2,880 votes. He hails from Kerala though his legal career has been in Delhi.He was a journalist covering crime beat before starting law practice.An alumnus of Delhi University's Campus Law Centre, Hariharan enrolled at the Delhi bar in 1987 and has over 38 years of practice. He was designated a Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court in 2013.A specialist in criminal matters, he has appeared in many high profile cases, both for and against the accused including top politicians. .Another Malayali, advocate Vipin Nair, is currently heading the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA), one of the two main bar bodies at the Supreme Court, the other being the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).Nair's father, advocate KMK Nair, was also a lawyer at the Supreme Court. They hail from Thalassery in Kerala. Nair did his law from Campus Law Centre and has been practicing at the Supreme Court since 1993. He previously served as the secretary of SCAORA..However, this is not the first time that a Malayali is heading bar bodies in Delhi.Senior Advocate and former Attorney General, the most famous Malayali in Delhi legal fraternity, has served as the president of SCBA thrice.
