IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA LPA No.808 of 2010 Arvind Kumar Sharma s/o Awadh Kishore Prasad Sharma, r/o Flat no. 501 (W) Keshav Place, Bailey Road, Khajpura, P.S. Shastri Nagar, Patna Versus 1. The State Of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Bihar, Patna 2. The Bihar State Bar Council Bhawan Patna, P.S. Kotwali, District – Patna 3. The Bihar State Bar Council Bhawan, Patna through its Secretary –cum-Returning Officer, Patna 4. The Chairman, the Bihar State Bar Council Bhawan, Patna 5. Mr. Prashant Kumar Shahi, Ex-officio, Chairman, Bihar State Bar Council Bhawan, Patna 6. Advocate General, Bihar, Patna 7. Ajit Kumar Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 8. Akhauri Mangla Charan Shrivastava, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 9. Baleshwar Pd. Sharma, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 10. Dharma Nath Pd. Yadav, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 11. Jai Prakash Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 12. Kameshwar Pandey, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 13. Mahammad Saidulllah, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 14. Manan Kumar Mishra, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 15. Prem Kumar Jha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 16. Prem Nath Ojha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 17. Rajendra Pd. Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 18. Rajeshwar Pd. Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 19. Rajiv Sharan, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 20. Rama Kant Sharma, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 21. Ranjan Kumar Jha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 22. Sadhu Saran Yadav, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 23. Shailendra Mohan Sinha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 24. Shashi Shekhar Kishore, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 25. Sudama Roy, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 26. Suraj Narain Pd. Sinha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 27. Surendra Deo Narain Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 28. Umesh Pd. Singh, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 2 29. Vindhya Keshri kumar, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 30. Vishwanath Prasad Sinha, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 31. Yogesh Chandra Verma, Member Bihar Bar Council, Patna 32. The Returning Officer, Bihar Bar Council Bhawan, Patna --- 2 6/5/2010 In this intra-court appeal the challenge is to the order dated 26.4.2010 passed by the learned Single Judge in CWJC. No.6678 of 2010. We think it apt to reproduce the order passed by the learned Single Judge: “Amongst the members of the Bar Council, it is not in dispute that Advocate General is an ex officio member. The Chairman of Bar Council has to be elected by members of the Bard Council from amongst themselves. No statute is shown to me where such election is restricted to elected members by the elected members alone. In that view of the matter, the challenge to the Advocate General filing nomination on the post of Chairman by virtue of him being ex officio member of the Committee cannot be said to be illegal.” It is submitted by Mr. Dinu Kumar, learned counsel for the appellant that in the scheme of things of the Advocates’ Act 1961 and the Rules framed thereunder the Advocate General cannot contest for the post of Chairman being an ex - officio member. On earlier occasion we had directed that a copy of the writ petition be served on the Secretary-cum- 3 Returning Officer, Bihar State Bard Council. Mr. Shashi Anugrah, learned senior counsel has entered appearance on behalf of the Bihar State Bar Council - the 3rd respondent. It is submitted by him that the election is over and the learned Advocate General though contested the election for the post of Chairman has not been successful. It is his further submission that in view of the obtaining factual matrix, the issue has become academic. At this juncture, Mr. Dinu Kumar, learned counsel appearing for the appellant, submitted that the order passed by the learned Single Judge if not lanceted would operate as a precedent. Regard being had to the fact that the issue, which has been raised in this appeal, has become academic, we do not intend to address the same. We only say that the issue whether the Advocate General can file nomination for the post of Chairman or not is kept open to be addressed in a case where it deserves to be dwelled upon. With the aforesaid observations, the appeal stands disposed of. Neyaz/ ( Dipak Misra, CJ.) (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.) 4