Lawyer Moves SC for quota for women in Advocate-on-Record Association

By The Slate Bureau

New Delhi: A lady advocate has approached the Supreme Court for a direction to ensure 33 per cent reservation for women in the executive committee of the Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association (SCAORA) which is presently an all-male body.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice Surya Kant will consider the petition on April 13, just days ahead of the fresh elections for 12-member executive body for the 2026-2028 term to be held on 29.4.2026.

Since the association is due to hold elections, an intervention by the court could unsettle the scheduled for elections announced by it.

Advocate Vivya Nagpal, an AOR, rushed to court after SCAORA issued election notice on 08.04.2026 without paying heed to her demand for amending relevant rules and provisions to provide for reservation to women before proceeding with the election of office bearers for the two-year term.

The petitioner has pointed out that all state bar councils, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and several other association of lawyers had reserved seats for fair representation of women. Many of these decisions were on the directions of the Supreme Court.

“Permitting this notified election process to proceed under the unamended rules will

irreversibly violate the fundamental rights of women Advocates-on-Record as a class under Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution, sealing their exclusion from institutional leadership for another full term,” the petitioner submitted in her petition.

It has been pointed out that the last elections for the Executive Committee of

SCAORA returned the current all- male Office Bearer committee, reflecting the

continuing exclusion of women from top leadership positions.

SCAORA is an association comprising approximately 3,000 AORs who hold the exclusive statutory authority to file matters and act on behalf of litigants before this Hon'ble Court under Order IV of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013.

The Petitioner has pointed out that the Supreme Court had intervened in similar cases in the past. The Court in Supreme Court Bar Association v. B.D. Kaushik (2024) mandated a minimum 33% reservation for women in the SCBA Executive Committee.

Subsequently, in Yogamaya M.G. v. Union of India (2025), a mandatory 30% reservation was ensured in statutory State Bar Councils across the country. And in Deeksha N. Amrutesh v. State of Karnataka, the Court invoked Article 142 to enforce a 30% reservation in the Advocates' Association, Bengaluru.