SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, April 1: The election of the Dhanbad Bar Association has snowballed into a legal controversy as the State Bar Council observers conducted a meeting of lawyers and initiated the process for a biennial poll.
The district bar association, on the other hand, has filed a writ petition in the Jharkhand High Court.
The State Bar Council observers, including senior advocates, Parmeshwar Manda and Sanjay Bidrohi, held a meeting with the lawyers of Dhanbad and sought names for probable poll officers.
However, the office bearers of the Bar Association did not attend the meeting saying that the AGM (Annual General Meeting) has already been called on April 11. They also talked with the observers on the issue.
Sanjay Bidrohi said that the tenure of the Bar Association was completed on March 26. The Association had requested the Council to send observers for the poll process. A meeting of observers with the members was fixed for today (April 1). “So, we have come to form an election committee,” he said. He further added that the outgoing office–bearers had sought two months’ extension which was rejected by the Council.
He stated that a total of 12 names were suggested from different lawyers, including senior lawyer Brajendra Prasad Singh (senior vice-president of the state Cong committee) in which three names would be screened and announced tomorrow.
Second observer Parmeshwar Mandal said that the election is due in Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Giridih, Bokaro, Sahebganj and other districts as well. All elections have to be completed before the state Bar Council poll scheduled in July.
“I also met the office bearers of the outgoing committee. They said that the names for the election committee would be selected at the AGM convened on April 11. The Council would decide the names of the three members election committee,” said observer Mandal.
However, he added that the poll can’t be held before one and half months as voters list and its verification needs to be done.
Lawyers in large numbers appeared at the meeting. For a while pandemonium prevailed at the meeting because some senior lawyers protested when the lawyers proposed the names for election officers.
