Madras HC division bench stays order of single bench in Madras Bar Association case

Chennai, July 3 A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising on Monday stayed the June 22  order of a single bench directing the Madras Bar Association (MBA) to distribute applications for membership to all interested practicing lawyers in the court.

The single bench has also directed the Madras Bar Association to admit them as members without discriminating on the basis of caste, gender, religion, political affiliation and economic status without referring to its by-laws.

The division bench comprising Justices S.S. Sundar and K. Rajashekar granted an interim stay for the prayer by the Madras Bar Association and listed the case to July 14 for final hearing. The judges were of the opinion that the single bench should have referred the case to the division bench as since 2021 there are High Court rules that require every case in which the Registrar General of the high court is party be heard by the division bench.

It also said that the single bench judge failed to consider the writ petition filed by senior advocate Elephant G. Rajendran in 2012. This petition had levelled serious allegations of discrimination against a senior member of the MBA who had not been made to respond to the writ petition.

The Judges pointed out that even though the senior member passed away in 2021, the single judge had gone ahead and issued a slew of directions against the MBA. The bench also ruled that there were several factual disputes that could be decided only during the final hearing of the case and stayed the single bench ruling till the appeal was disposed of.