Senior advocate Pradeep Rai has won the elections and been elected as the president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). The results were announced late Tuesday night.
Senior advocate Anupam Lal Dass came close to Rai’s 822 votes with 451 votes. 5 other aspirants were also in the fray – including Siddharth Mridul, senior Advocate who has retired as Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court.
Senior advocate Adish Agarwala secured 412 votes and Mridul got 217 votes. Gaurav Bhatia, senior advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson got 370 votes ahead of Sukumar Pattjoshi (senior advocate) with 269 votes and Mahalakshmi Pavani (senior advocate) with 128 votes.
Other SCBA elected positions on the ballot box included vice president, secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and joint treasurer/senior executive members.
Senior advocate Rahul Kaushik remained vice president while advocate Pragya Baghel remained as its secretary. Advocate Meneesh Dubey was also re-elected the joint secretary and advocate Reepak Kansal was declared elected as the treasurer. A few other positions’ results were pending.
Earlier, Pradeep Rai was SCBA’s vice president and his political pitch had concentrated on behalf of advocate welfare. In his presidential proclamation, he promised that children of SCBA will get till Rs 50 lakh medical security coverage with merit-based scholarships.
Rai replaces senior advocate Vikas Singh, who was re-elected as the president of SCBA in 2025. His election is the opening of a new phase, where advocate welfare and support measures are becoming major concerns.