On Thursday, President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave resigned from his post with immediate effect.
In his letter he stated that “following recent events, I feel that I have forfeited my right to continue as your Leader and so I hereby tender my resignation from the post of the President of the SCBA with immediate effect.”
He further stated that, “Our term has already come to an end. We sincerely decided to hold virtual elections to elect a new body. Now I feel it may not be possible to hold them as per the schedule declared by the Election Commission due to reservations held by some of you.”
Factually, discord and disagreements arose among the Executive Committee of the SCBA vis-à-vis an agreement between National Security Depository Limited (NSDL) and SCBA whereby an estimated cost of Rs. 5,45,000/- was to be sanctioned by SCBA to NSDL in connection with VIRTUAL ELECTION of SCBA 2021.
Apparently, the members disagreed to the resolution proposed by SCBA President Dushyant Dave since the proposition seemed unreasonable to majority of the members of the executive committee of SCBA as excessive rates and exaggerated fee was being proposed to be paid to NSDL (which is a semi-government agency) for conducting virtual elections of SCBA – 2021.
Interestingly, the fellow members of the SCBA are not against conducting virtual elections but are against the sanctioning of unreasonable, unfair and exaggerated fee to private/semi government agencies to conduct elections virtually, as suggested and proposed by Mr. Dave.
It is pertinent to note here that out of total 20 Members of the Executive Committee of SCBA, 13 members disagreed to the said proposition. However, Sr. Advocate Dushyant Dave was very much in favour of the proposition to sanction Rs. 5,45,000/- to NSDL in order to conduct virtual elections of SCBA.
Apparently, Dr. Adish C. Aggarwala, Senior Executive Member was of the view that private players/semi government authorities, even if they charge/quote less, should not be involved in the election process as chances of rigging and bias results are possible in the election. He even requested the Sr. Adv. Dushyant Dave for holding general body meeting as per the rules of SCBA, for appointing Election Commission and for finalizing the mode of upcoming elections.
Majority of the members (65%) disagreed to the resolution as proposed by the President of SCBA. Below are the names of the members who DISAGREED:
- Rohit Pandey, Acting Honorary Secretary
- Mahalakshmi Pavani, Senior Executive Member
- Adish Aggrawal, Senior Executive Member
- Arijit Prasad, Senior Executive Member
- Col. Balasubramanium, Senior Executive Member
- Amarendra Kumar Singh, Executive Member
- Dr. Ritu Bharadwaj, Executive Member
- Prerna Kumari, Executive Member
- K.V Bharathi Upadhyaya, Executive Member
- Upendra Narayana Mishra, Executive Member
- R. Anand Padmanabhan, Executive Member
- Alka Aggarwal, Executive Member
- Tanveer Khan, Executive Member
Most of these members are in favour of physical voting during elections which could be fair, reliable and not rigged.
As per the instructions of SCBA President Dushyant Dave, the resolution regarding the agreement between SCBA and NSDL was presented before the Election Commission members for approval, but the majority of the members (13 out of 20) disapproved the resolution owing to the exorbitant and unreasonable price quoted in the agreement between NSDL and SCBA. This made Sr. Adv. Dushyant Dave upset with fellow members for not agreeing to the proposition, which triggered him to resign as the President of SCBA with immediate effect.
Adding another twist to the story, Advocate Anjani Kumar Jha, wrote a message, which is heavily circulating among the fraternity, addressed to Dave stating that “good sense prevailed upon you at the last minute when your term already expired.”
He further stated that “Bar will always remember you to what extent you demeaned the Bar and its members. Very wisely you resigned after completing your full term. You may carry with this remark ‘neither you deserve bar, nor does Bar deserve you’. Thank you for your wise but belated decision.”
It is interesting to note here that this is the second time Dave has resigned out of his three tenures.
There is an uproar of messages circulating on watsapp by various advocates strongly condemning the acts of Dave. Another message by Advocate Manoj Kumar Srivastwa reads as follows:
“Very right move Hon'ble President, SCBA (Resigned) Sir at the time when your bullish idiosyncratic modus operandi could not jostle and failed to crush the popular will of the Hon'ble members/electorate in favour of SCBA physical election,2021.
A leader must belong to the people, lay & laity and the class apart.
Pl don't rechristen the Constitutional right to oppose conferred to our members U/A 19 as "quarrel". It’s ludicrous on you as leader and as the Sr lawyer of the apex constitutional court of the nation.”
