Hariharan elected Delhi bar chief; 4 women in exec panel

Hariharan has represented many political leaders in various criminal cases, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal

Senior advocate N Hariharan, 63, was elected as the president of the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) as results of the March 21 elections were announced on Sunday.

Hariharan elected Delhi bar chief; 4 women in exec panel

Hariharan, who replaces senior advocate Mohit Mathur, secured 2,967 votes, defeating senior advocate Kirti Uppal by a margin of only 87 votes.

The post of the vice president was secured by senior advocate Sachin Puri, 51, with 4,515 votes. Puri, who was designated as senior advocate in 2016, holds a Political Science degree from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and a law degree from Delhi University.

Advocate Kanika Singh, a graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, was elected as the treasurer, senior advocate Premlata Bansal as member executive (designated senior advocate), and advocate Kajal Chandra was elected as member executive (25 years of standing). Advocate Vidhi Gupta, a graduate from Faculty of Law, Delhi University, secured the post of member executive (lady).

A seasoned criminal lawyer with almost 38 years of experience, Hariharan has represented many political leaders in various criminal cases, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Delhi minister Satyendra Jain jailed Jammu and Kashmir parliamentarian Rashid Engineer, and senior congress leader P Chidambaram. He had also represented Bibhav Kumar, Kejriwal’s close aide, in connection with the alleged assault case involving AAP parliamentarian Swati Maliwal.

This year’s DHCBA elections had witnessed a watershed moment, as for the first time, three posts were reserved for women following a Supreme Court direction on December 19, 2024 for greater gender representation. The posts of treasurer, member executive (designated senior advocate), and member executive (25 years of standing) were reserved on an experimental basis, following a plea by three women lawyers, Fozia Rehman, Aditi Chaudhary and Shobha Gupta.

With this, the representation of women in the 15-member executive committee (EC) has gone up to four. The previous EC only contained two women — advocates Gayatri Puri and Bandana Kaur Grover.