The State Bar Council: Constitution, Powers and Functions

Section 3(4): an advocate is disqualified from voting, and from being chosen as and being a member, unless he possesses the qualifications or satisfies the conditions prescribed by the Bar Council of India; and an electoral roll is prepared and revised from time to time by each State Bar Council.

Section 5 makes it a body corporate, as chapter [The Bar Council of India: Constitution, Powers and Functions] sets out.

Functions: section 6

Section 6(1) lists them, and the first three are the ones that define what a State Bar Council is.

• (a) to admit persons as advocates on its roll.
• (b) to prepare and maintain such roll.
• (c) to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates on its roll.

Those three are the reason the State Bar Council, and not the Bar Council of India, is the body an ordinary advocate deals with. Enrolment starts there under section 25, the roll is kept there under section 17, and a complaint of misconduct starts there under section 35.

The rest:

• (d) to safeguard the rights, privileges and interests of advocates on its roll.
• (dd) to promote the growth of Bar Associations for the effective implementation of the welfare schemes in section 6(2)(a) and section 7(2)(a).
• (e) to promote and support law reform.
• (ee) to conduct seminars and organise talks on legal topics by eminent jurists and publish journals and papers of legal interest.
• (eee) to organise legal aid to the poor in the prescribed manner.
• (f) to manage and invest the funds of the Bar Council.
• (g) to provide for the election of its members.
• (gg) to visit and inspect Universities in accordance with the directions given under section 7(1)(i).
• (h) to perform all other functions conferred on it by or under this Act.
• (i) to do all other things necessary for discharging the aforesaid functions.

Section 6(2) lets a State Bar Council constitute one or more funds for giving financial assistance to organise welfare schemes for the indigent, disabled or other advocates, for giving legal aid or advice, and for establishing law libraries. Section 6(3) lets it receive grants, donations, gifts or benefactions for those purposes.

Clause (gg) is worth noticing: the inspection of law colleges is done in practice by the State Bar Council, but only in accordance with the directions given by the Bar Council of India under section 7(1)(i). The State Bar Council is the hands; the standard is national.

Term and the special committee: sections 8 and 8A

Section 8: the term of office of an elected member of a State Bar Council is five years from the date of publication of the result of his election. A proviso lets the Bar Council of India, by order and for reasons recorded in writing, extend that term by not more than six months where the State Bar Council has failed to provide for the election of its members before expiry.

Section 8A answers the question a student is most likely to be asked about this pair: what happens if the election still does not happen.

Where a State Bar Council fails to provide for the election before the expiry of the five years or the extended term, the Bar Council of India shall, on and from the day immediately following the expiry, constitute a Special Committee consisting of:

• (i) the ex officio member of the State Bar Council referred to in section 3(2)(a), as Chairman, and where there is more than one ex officio member, the senior-most among them; and
• (ii) two members nominated by the Bar Council of India from amongst advocates on the electoral roll of that State Bar Council.

The Special Committee exercises the powers of the State Bar Council until a new Council is constituted, and its duty is to hold the election. This is live and practical law: State Bar Councils have run under special committees for long periods, and an advocate dealing with such a body is dealing with a statutory substitute rather than an elected Council.

Committees, staff, accounts, vacancies

Section 9 requires disciplinary committees, which Module III deals with.

Section 9A allows legal aid committees of five to nine members.

Section 10(1): a State Bar Council shall constitute two standing committees:

• an executive committee of five members elected by the Council from amongst its members;
• an enrolment committee of three members elected by the Council from amongst its members.

Note the difference from the national body: the Bar Council of India's executive committee has nine, and it has a legal education committee of ten in place of an enrolment committee. That is the right way to remember both, because the State Bar Council enrols and the Bar Council of India sets educational standards.

Sections 10A, 10B, 11, 12 and 15 apply to both kinds of Council and are set out in chapter [The Bar Council of India: Constitution, Powers and Functions]. In short: meetings and procedure; vacation of office on absence from three consecutive meetings or removal from the roll; secretary and staff; books of account and audit; and the rule-making power.

Section 13: no act done by a Bar Council or a committee is invalid merely by reason of any vacancy in the body or any defect in the constitution of it.

Section 14: an election to a Bar Council shall not be questioned on the ground that the electoral roll was invalid, or that the result was declared after the prescribed time, provided the whole of the electorate had a reasonable opportunity of voting.

Those two are curative provisions, and their purpose is to stop the entire work of a Bar Council being unpicked because of a procedural irregularity.

Section 46A: the Bar Council of India may give financial assistance to any State Bar Council which needs funds to perform its functions. That is the answer to how a State Bar Council with a small membership survives on the fee in section 24(1)(f).

A worked example

The elected members of a State Bar Council were declared elected on 1 September 2020. No fresh election is held.

What happens, section by section.

1. Section 8. Their five-year term expired on 1 September 2025.
2. The proviso to section 8. Because the Council failed to provide for an election before expiry, the Bar Council of India may, by order recording reasons, extend the term by up to six months, that is to 1 March 2026.
3. Section 8A. If no election is provided for before the extended term expires, the Bar Council of India shall constitute a Special Committee on and from 2 March 2026. Its Chairman is the ex officio member under section 3(2)(a), the Advocate-General, and its other two members are advocates on the electoral roll nominated by the Bar Council of India.

Meanwhile, what happens to work in progress? An enrolment application filed in February 2026 is dealt with by the Special Committee exercising the Council's powers. A disciplinary complaint continues before the disciplinary committee, and section 36A ensures that where a disciplinary committee ceases to exercise jurisdiction and is succeeded by another, the successor may continue the proceedings from the stage at which its predecessor left them.

And a trap. A candidate refused enrolment during this period cannot argue that everything done was a nullity because the Council was not properly constituted. Section 13 provides that no act of a Bar Council or a committee is invalid merely by reason of a vacancy or a defect in constitution.

What beginners get wrong

The State Bar Council does not enrol; its enrolment committee does, under section 26(1).

The number of elected members is not fixed at twenty-five. It is fifteen, twenty or twenty-five according to the size of the electorate under section 3(2)(b).

The ex officio member is the Advocate-General, except in the special cases named in the section, and for Delhi it is the Additional Solicitor-General.

A special committee under section 8A is not a punishment. It is a statutory substitute that keeps the Council's work going and whose duty is to hold the election.

Inspection of law colleges is not the State Bar Council's own standard. Section 6(1)(gg) makes it a function to be exercised in accordance with directions given by the Bar Council of India under section 7(1)(i).

Quick revision

• Section 3(1)(ccc): the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, covering Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu.
• Section 3(2)(a): ex officio member, the Advocate-General of the State; for Delhi, the Additional Solicitor-General.
• Section 3(2)(b): fifteen, twenty or twenty-five elected members according to an electorate of up to five thousand, up to ten thousand, or above ten thousand, elected by proportional representation with the single transferable vote. Proviso: as nearly as possible one-half must have been advocates for at least ten years.
• Section 6(1): the first three functions are to admit advocates on its roll, to prepare and maintain the roll, and to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates on its roll.
• Section 6(1)(gg): visit and inspect Universities in accordance with directions under section 7(1)(i).
• Section 8: term five years; the Bar Council of India may extend by up to six months for reasons recorded.
• Section 8A: on failure to elect, the Bar Council of India shall constitute a Special Committee: the ex officio member as Chairman and two members nominated by the Bar Council of India.
• Section 10(1): executive committee of five, enrolment committee of three.
• Sections 13 and 14: acts are not invalid merely for a vacancy or defect in constitution, and an election is not to be questioned where the whole electorate had a reasonable opportunity of voting.
• Section 46A: the Bar Council of India may give financial assistance to a State Bar Council.

Test yourself

1. Which State Bar Council covers a student who will practise in Mumbai, and under which clause? The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, under section 3(1)(ccc), which covers Maharashtra and Goa and the Union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

2. How many elected members does a State Bar Council have? Fifteen where the electorate does not exceed five thousand, twenty where it exceeds five thousand but not ten thousand, and twenty-five where it exceeds ten thousand, under section 3(2)(b).

3. What does the proviso to section 3(2) require, and why? That as nearly as possible one-half of the elected members shall be persons who have been advocates on a State roll for at least ten years. It guarantees experience on the Council without shutting younger advocates out of it.

4. State the first three functions of a State Bar Council. To admit persons as advocates on its roll, to prepare and maintain that roll, and to entertain and determine cases of misconduct against advocates on its roll, under section 6(1)(a), (b) and (c).

5. What happens if a State Bar Council fails to hold elections before its term expires? Under the proviso to section 8 the Bar Council of India may extend the term by up to six months for reasons recorded in writing. If the failure continues, section 8A requires the Bar Council of India to constitute a Special Committee, chaired by the ex officio member of the Council, with two members nominated by the Bar Council of India from advocates on the electoral roll.

6. Can the decisions of a Bar Council be challenged because a seat on it was vacant? No. Section 13 provides that no act done by a Bar Council or any of its committees is invalid merely by reason of any vacancy in the body or any defect in its constitution.

7. Compare the standing committees of a State Bar Council with those of the Bar Council of India. A State Bar Council constitutes an executive committee of five and an enrolment committee of three, under section 10(1). The Bar Council of India constitutes an executive committee of nine and a legal education committee of ten, five elected and five co-opted, under section 10(2).