Gujarat high court issues notices on plea over women representation in Bar Council of Gujarat

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has issued notices to the Bar Council of Gujarat and the elected and non-elected candidates in the recently concluded elections, in response to a petition filed by a woman candidate. She had alleged that the outcome failed to ensure adequate representation of women advocates in line with Supreme Court directions.Advocate Manisha Parikh, who is a treasurer of the Metropolitan Court Bar Association and who contested the Bar Council's elections, has challenged the election result declared on March 21 and argued that according to the Supreme Court's guidelines, 30% seats should be reserved for female candidates, which comes to five female candidates, but only three female candidates were declared elected. According to the plea filed through advocate Y N Ravani, the election authorities misread the SC's order of Dec 2025 and wrongly applied a Bar Council of India's communication of Dec 23, 2025, in this regard. It says women candidates who secured positions in the overall merit list should not have been counted against the separate quota intended to secure minimum representation. Parikh has stated that two women candidates were already placed within the first 18 elected candidates at Nos. 10 and 14. She argued that five additional seats should have been identified for women candidates who did not make it through the general list, which would have placed her at No. 4 in the women's category and entitled her to be declared elected along with another candidate, Bhumika Patel. Parikh has sought partial quashing of the March 21 notification and asks the court to declare Parikh and Patel elected while cancelling the election of two candidates — Bharat Bhagat and Haresh Nakrani — shown at Nos. 19 and 20. After the hearing, Justice H M Prachchhak sought replies from the BCG and all the candidates who contested the elections by June 30, when further hearing has been posted.
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