Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai has been elected the new President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for the 2026-27 term. Rai secured 822 votes, defeating Senior Advocate Anupam Lal Dass, who received 451 votes.
Rai will succeed Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, who headed the SCBA during the 2025-26 term.
New SCBA office-bearers
Senior Advocate Rahul Kaushik has been elected Vice President, while Advocate Pragya Baghel will serve as Secretary. Advocate Meenesh Dubey was elected Joint Secretary and Advocate Reepak Kansal as Treasurer.
Other candidates in the presidential contest included Senior Advocates Adish Agarwalla, Gaurav Bhatia, Sukumar Pattjoshi, Mahalakshmi Pavani and Siddharth Mridul. They secured 412, 370, 269, 128 and 217 votes, respectively.
Around 2,794 votes were cast, with the early estimates putting voter turnout at approximately 82 per cent.
Rai's election promises
During the pre-poll presidential debate, Rai had backed scrapping the sequencing system at the Supreme Court and outlined several welfare measures for advocates.
Among his election promises was medical security cover of up to Rs 50 lakh for advocates. He had also proposed merit-based scholarships for children of SCBA members.
Rai has previously held a leadership position within the association. He served as SCBA Vice President during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 terms.
Rai's second presidential bid
This was Rai's second consecutive attempt at becoming SCBA president. He had contested the post last year along with Adish Aggarwala, but both were defeated by Vikas Singh.
Before Singh, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had served as SCBA president.
The election was held amid changes concerning the association's electoral process. In April, the Supreme Court directed the Election Committee to complete the election process, including declaration of results, by August 5.
The court had also introduced electoral reforms for SCBA elections, but subsequently modified its order to defer their implementation until 2027. It further directed that the elections be conducted around August 18.