Remove your election banners and posters before polling starts or face “disciplinary action” - this was Bar Council of Delhi’s caveat to lawyers across the Capital, a day before the Bar Association elections. “All advocates who are contesting elections. must remove all such banners, posters, etc. from the premises of the Court Complex inside and outside and throughout Delhi within 10 hours or before the polling starts, failing which necessary disciplinary action shall be initiated against such candidates and their licence will be placed under suspension with immediate effect. this resolution be circulated widely,” the BCD said in a public notice dated March 20. On Friday, lawyers will choose their representatives in the executive committees of all bar associations. Last month, the Delhi High Court ordered that all bar association elections in the Capital will be held on March 21. In the run-up to the polls, bus stops, walls outside court complexes, pillars in the vicinity, and even trees have all been covered with election posters. The BCD notice further said, “It has been observed by the Bar Council of Delhi that the menace being created by candidates contesting on various posts of Bar Associations of District Court as well as Delhi High Court, throughout Delhi, by pasting, placing, hanging posters, banners etc. on the premises of the Court Complex inside and outside and including public places like Metro Pillars and even on public properties and private properties, without any licence and without any permission, not only amounts to an offence under provisions of the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2009, and also under Section 35 (punishment for misconduct) of the Advocates Act and Rules of Bar Council of Delhi.” From 87 in 2021 to 2,450 in 2024 (till October), cases lodged under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act have grown by 28 times in less than four years. While 798 cases were lodged in 2022, the next year recorded 1,196 cases.
