Mathews J Nedumpara
1st August 2026
98205 35428.

More than 3000 lawyers who are permanent members of the SCBA have been denied voting rights. Even those who are eligible voters are denied the right to contest election for the post of their choice. No one having a sense of fairness and elementary knowledge of law would disagree with me that nothing could be more undemocratic and inequitable than such a scenario. The common man, who does not have a clear idea of how our Supreme Court works — nay, the extent to which the institution has been allowed to be hijacked over the past few decades — would be flabbergasted. He would find it difficult to believe that such mischief is the outcome of judicial orders over the past more than a decade.
Lawyers who are denied voting rights privately tell me that to make a grievance of that would be nothing but to give the impression that they don’t have any serious practice in the Supreme Court. Those who are voters but denied the right to contest the election for want of reported judgments think that to agitate about it would give the impression that they don’t have a significant position in the Bar.
Friends, we need to overcome such fears. The SCBA is not a State. It is not an instrumentality of the State. It is not discharging any public function or duty. In such a scenario, Article 32 can have no application. A few elites, kith and kin of judges, nay dynasties, cannot confer jurisdiction by consent. It may not be fair to blame the Court for meddling with the affairs of the SCBA by exercising its jurisdiction under Article 32. But the fact that the Court has often lost sight of the fact that it is a creation of law and is duty bound to act within the bounds of law is undeniable. The Supreme Court, the other day, acknowledged the fact that it went wrong in holding that no appeal would lie against an order of the trial court (coal scam) in any other court than itself — this is a glaring instance of its overreach.
We have no right to call ourselves lawyers if we don’t assert our rights and vociferously oppose and defeat unjust denial of our rights.
I don’t intend to contest the election even in my wildest dreams. However, I am determined to oppose and question, through all legal and constitutional means, the hijacking of the SCBA by a few dynasties of lawyers and judges.
I call upon my brothers and sisters of the Supreme Court Bar to join me in this war of David vs. Goliath; justice vs. injustice. Never despair. Success is certain.