Shillong: The High Court of Meghalaya has disposed of a writ petition filed by the High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association and the Shillong Bar Association, after being satisfied that the State machinery and the Bar Council of Meghalaya had taken adequate steps both to investigate an assault on an advocate and to institutionalise mechanisms for addressing complaints of sexual harassment within the legal fraternity.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice W. Diengdoh was hearing a petition triggered by a representation dated 29th July 2026, in which the Bar Associations had highlighted that an advocate was apprehended by non-State actors from his professional chamber at Keating Road, Shillong, and thereafter physically assaulted and paraded to the Sadar Police Station, without any FIR initially being registered against the assailants. The petitioners’ grievance was that private individuals had taken the law into their own hands while the police had abdicated its duty to intervene.
Appearing for the petitioners, Counsel had relied on the Supreme Court’s guidelines in Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India [(2018) 9 SCC 501], which mandate preventive, remedial and punitive measures by State Governments against vigilante violence, to argue that the conduct of the non-State actors could not be countenanced. During the pendency of the petition, the Advocate General assured the Court that appropriate steps would be taken, and an FIR was in fact registered against the assailants during the course of the hearing, with the investigation stated to be ongoing towards its logical conclusion.
Separately, the petition also drew attention to a pending complaint of sexual harassment against an advocate, in the course of which the Bar Council of Meghalaya had, on 3rd August 2026, assured the Court that a mandatory drop box facility would be set up in all Bar Associations and at its own office to enable such grievances to be raised by women advocates and interns. Affidavits placed on record showed that the Bar Council of Meghalaya, at its meeting held on 31st July 2026, had directed all Bar Associations in the State to comply, that the High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association had adopted these resolutions at its executive meeting on 10th August 2026, and that the Bar Council itself had since set up a physical drop box and an online complaint portal on its website, with most Bar Associations reported to have complied. The Court also noted that the Shillong Bar Association had suspended the advocate against whom the harassment complaint was made, and that the complaint was registered as a DC Enquiry to be dealt with under the Bar Council of India Rules.
Recording that the Bar Council of Meghalaya had taken “positive and adequate steps” to address such grievances going forward, and that the investigation into the assault on the advocate was underway, the Court held that nothing further survived for consideration and disposed of the petition.
Case Title: High Court of Meghalaya Bar Association & Anr. vs. State of Meghalaya & Ors., WP(C) No. 350/2026
