SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, April 4: The Dhanbad Bar Association and the State Bar Council are headed for a showdown over the selection of election committee members to hold the district Bar poll.
The State Bar Council has announced a three-member committee under senior lawyers, Brajendra Prasad Singh, SC Mallick and PC Mahto to hold a poll for the election of the Dhanbad Bar Association. Besides them, the Council has also nominated four members, Vijay Bahadur Ray, Parmeswar Prasad Bari, Sanjay Kumar Sharma and Pankaj Kumar Prasad.
The council has announced the committee based on 12 names suggested by members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on April 1. However, office–bearers of the outgoing Bar Association rejected the Bar Council’s committee and said that the matter is in the High Court and only after the hearing of the High Court scheduled tomorrow (April 5) any decision over the election of the district bar would be taken.
The outgoing Bar committee had filed a writ in the High Court against the Council for convening AGM on April 1, but the present outgoing committee has also convened AGM on April 11 to select an election committee and put up an audit report of a chartered accountant before the members of the Bar.
“ When the High Court has fixed the date for hearing, the announcement of the election committee by Council becomes contempt of court. Holding unilateral AGM on April 1 without consulting and discussion with outgoing officer bearers was also illegal as only the bar Association has the right to call AGM,” said Amrendra Sahay, president of Bar Association.
The two-year tenure of the present Bar Association committee ended on March 26. The Council convened the AGM of Dhanbad Bar on April 1 and sent two observers, Parmeswar Mandal and Sanjay Bidrohi for forming an election committee without conducting an audit of the outgoing committee.
A contradiction was also reflected in the statements of both the observers of the Council during a meeting with members at Dhanbad on April 1. After getting a suggestion of 12 names for the three-men election committee from members, Sanjay Bidrohi ( one of the observers) duly announced that the council would declare names in two days out of the suggested 12 names.
But at the same time, another Council observer Parmeswar Mandal while addressing the members said that the election committee would be declared after getting suggested names from the outgoing Bar Association AGM scheduled on April 11.
However, on April 3, the Council announced the three-member election committee without waiting for the High Court order and April 11 AGM.
