BCI Moves SC to Finalise 30% Women Quota in Bar Councils

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Friday, 22 May 2026

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has approached the Supreme Court of India seeking approval for a merit-based co-option mechanism aimed at ensuring 30 percent representation for women in state bar councils across the country.

The proposal seeks to operationalise the apex court’s earlier directive mandating greater inclusion of women within the legal profession’s representative bodies.

Under the proposed framework , the BCI has recommended that the additional 10 per cent quota for women be filled through a transparent co-option kind of process. Rather than relying on subjective appointments or human preference, the seats would be allocated to women candidates who managed to obtain the highest number of votes among those who actually contested but were not elected. This suggestion is meant to sit alongside the 20 percent reservation already set aside for women via direct elections, so as to eventually reach the court-mandated 30 percent representation target.

Key Highlights

• Merit-based co-option proposed to strengthen women’s representation in bar councils
• Women runners-up to secure seats through transparent democratic mechanism
• Supreme Court reviewing final framework for 30 per cent reservation mandate

BCI Chairperson and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra stated that the apex bar body had carefully examined submissions made by stakeholders before the Supreme Court-appointed High Powered Election Supervisory Committee regarding the co-option of women members in state bar councils.

“This issue concerns not merely filling seats, but the larger institutional objective, which is ensuring that women advocates, who constitute an indispensable and distinguished part of the legal fraternity, are given their rightful place in the representative structure of the Bar. The Bar Council of India approached this matter with sincerity, fairness, transparency and a deep sense of responsibility toward the legal profession as a whole,” the BCI stated.

The council further clarified that “co-option is to be made from among the contesting women candidates who secured the highest number of votes but could not be declared elected within the contemplated 20 per cent representation for women”.

In its application before the apex court, the BCI argued that selecting women “runners-up” who narrowly missed election would be the most democratic and objective method to fulfil the remaining quota. According to the council , the process would remain “fair, objective, transparent, and least susceptible to arbitrariness,” while also making sure that the co-option mechanism stays aligned with the electorate’s mandate, more or less.

The development followed a landmark directive that the Supreme Court issued in December 2023, mandating 30 percent reservation for women in state bar councils. On April 13, the court asked the High-Powered Election Supervisory Committee led by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to figure out the precise method for putting in place the additional 10 percent co-option quota.