Chandigarh, Dec 7: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association has told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that internal disputes of a private Bar body cannot be adjudicated through writ jurisdiction, opposing a lawyer’s attempt to link disciplinary proceedings against him to a public interest litigation he had filed.
The response came after lawyer Prithvi Raj Yadav asked the court to stay disciplinary action, claiming it was initiated because of his 2023 PIL on encroachment and illegal vending on the high court premises. The PIL had prompted a crackdown by the UT administration, later stayed on the Bar body’s request, and also exposed an illegal parking area the Bar had set up on a green belt.
The high court had earlier stayed proceedings against Yadav, with a bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry observing, “Where is the misconduct? This action virtually amounts to interference in the process of justice.”
However, Bar association secretary Gagandeep Jammu said in the written reply that the association, being a private body registered under the Societies Registration Act, is “not amenable to judicial review,” adding that it neither receives government aid nor falls under “deep control” of the state or the Bar Council.
The association warned that permitting such challenges would create “chaos,” as disputes from 43 district Bars and sub-divisional Bars in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh could then be brought before the court. It also termed the application premature, noting that Yadav had not challenged the Bar’s July 2023 executive decision authorising disciplinary action. The court is expected to hear the matter later this month.
