The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday declared 300 members of the Oudh Bar Association ineligible to vote in the ensuing elections scheduled on Wednesday
A division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjive Shukla passed the order on petitions concerning the OBA elections notified on September 10, 2026.
Bar Council of UP counsel Subhash Chandra Pandey, in pursuance of an earlier order, placed before the court a list of 5,108 members found eligible by returning officers. He submitted that out of these, 155 members have their place of voting mentioned in the Certificate of Practice (COP) elsewhere and not in Oudh Bar Association, Lucknow, and 145 others have not got their COP renewed.
Accepting the data based on Bar Council records displayed on its website, the court held that 155 persons whose place of voting in COP is other than OBA, Lucknow, shall not be eligible to vote. In addition, those 145 persons whose COP has not been renewed shall also not be eligible in view of Bar Council of India Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015, unless they submit valid proof of renewal before Returning Officer Mohd. Arif Khan.
For the future, the court directed the Bar Council of UP to come up with a software/mechanism within six months by which a true copy of the COP at the time of issuance be uploaded on the website in a manner that whenever the registration number or name is clicked, the COP should get reflected. If any change is made in the COP, the nature of the change and the date should also be reflected corresponding to the name/registration number. This will avoid exercise of collecting lists from various associations and curtail unnecessary litigation.
{{/usCountry}}For the future, the court directed the Bar Council of UP to come up with a software/mechanism within six months by which a true copy of the COP at the time of issuance be uploaded on the website in a manner that whenever the registration number or name is clicked, the COP should get reflected. If any change is made in the COP, the nature of the change and the date should also be reflected corresponding to the name/registration number. This will avoid exercise of collecting lists from various associations and curtail unnecessary litigation.
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