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By the Court.—These writ proceedings have been instituted by the Agra Advocates Association and its General Secretary for challenging an order passed on 12 August 2014 by the Vice-Chairperson of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh in his capacity as officiating Chairperson by which the affiliation which was granted to the first petitioner on 1 June 2014 has been recalled.

2. Among the functions of the State Bar Council in Section 6(1)(dd) of the Advocates Act, 1961 (the Act) is to promote the growth of Bar Associations for the purposes of effective implementation of the welfare schemes referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (2) of Section 7 of the Act. Section 6(2) empowers the State Bar Council to constitute one or more funds for the purpose of giving financial assistance to organise welfare schemes for the indigent, disabled or other advocates and for establishing law libraries. A large number of welfare schemes have been initiated by the Bar Council of India. Similarly, Advocates’ Welfare Funds have been created under the Uttar Pradesh Advocates’ Welfare Fund Act, 1974. These welfare schemes have given rise to a number of Associations of Advocates at the district level. The State Bar Council framed the Bar Association Affiliation Rules, 1979 (Rules of 1979) and later the Bar Council Uttar Pradesh Adhivakta Sangh Sambadhan Niyamawali, 2005 (Rules of 2005) (Bar Council Uttar Pradesh Advocates Association Affiliation Rules, 2005).

3. The case of the petitioner is that the strength of practicing advocates at the Civil Court in Agra is more than 4000 and the membership of the first petitioner is proximately 381 advocates. The Agra Bar Association, Civil Court, Agra, which is an established Association, has restricted its membership to 500 advocates as a result of which, according to the petitioner, a large number of advocates have been deprived of the membership of a Bar Association. In this background, the first petitioner was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 by a registration certificate dated 28 May 2014. Immediately, after obtaining the registration of the first petitioner as a Society, an application was made to the State Bar Council for affiliation. The Office Superintendent made a report on 31 May 2014 to the effect that all formalities have been complied with except for a list of members. The case of the petitioner is that the then Chairperson of the Bar Council accepted the report and permitted the petitioner to file a list of members which was thereafter filed. An order of affiliation was passed on 1 June 2014 by Sri Vinay Chandra Mishra, the then Chairperson of the Bar Council.

4. An order has been passed by the officiating Chairperson withdrawing the affiliation. In the order recalling the affiliation, it has been noted that in Agra there is a Bar Association in the Civil Court premises, namely the Agra Bar Association which is affiliated to the State Bar Council. It has been stated that the first petitioner for whom affiliation was sought was allowed to be affiliated on 1 June 2014 in a “most arbitrary and illegal manner” by the then Chairperson as it was incumbent upon the State Bar Council to issue a notice providing an opportunity to the office bearers and members of the Agra Bar Association which was already affiliated to the State Bar Council. Since no notice was given to the existing Association, the order of affiliation has been quashed and set aside.

5. During the course of hearing, the principal issue which has emerged before the Court is whether the officiating Chairperson of the State Bar Council, or for that matter the Chairperson, has the power under the affiliation Rules to cancel an affiliation which has been granted to a Bar Association. In this regard, it would be appropriate to refer to the earlier Rules of 1979 and thereafter to the present Rules of 2005 which hold the field.

Rules of 1979

6. Clause 1(a) of the Rules of 1979 defines the expression ‘Association’ to mean