Days after Tamil Nadu Advocate General Vijay Narayan wrote to the Bar Council accusing senior counsel S. Prabakaran of trying to thwart elections to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (BCTP), two members of the Special Committee refuted the allegations.
R. Singaravelan, senior advocate, and N. Chandrasekharan, advocate, members of the Special Committee that is administering the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, wrote to the Chairman, Bar Council of India and the Secretary, BCTP, raising questions over the functioning and actions of the Advocate General.
The members in their letter said Mr. Narayan, the ex-officio chairman of the Special Committee, conducted and attended only one meeting on November 9 last, “and he left that meeting also in the middle to attend the call of the State Minister”.
“It is unfortunate to note that such a person has come out with baseless allegations that we are delaying the election process forgetting that an allegation can be levelled against him too connecting him with any other leader of the Bar,” they said in the letter.
The members said the electoral list was published by the Bar Council in their presence as Mr. Narayan was not available on December 29, and “only as per his instructions, giving two weeks’ time to raise any objections against the said list which expired only on January 13”. They said the Bar Council received a lot of objections that were subject to scrutiny, but Mr. Narayan did not allot time for the special committee meeting.
Mr. Singaravelan and Mr. Chandrasekharan said they came to know about the Advocate General’s letter to the Bar Council only through a WhatsApp message. They further claimed that Mr. Narayan has not done anything for the publication of the tentative electoral list and finalisation of the list till now.
The advocates said a motion was moved by the secretary seeking permission of the special committee to file a petition before the Supreme Court as the final electoral roll could not be published on or before January 15, as per the directions of the apex court. As permission was sought only for filing a petition, the members gave permission to avoid contempt of any court order. But Mr. Narayan, in a separate letter on January 12, declined to give permission to file the petition.
“Mr. Narayan has issued a wrong message as if we intend to drag on the election process to support Mr. Prabakaran by filing a petition without even explaining as to how the above delay would help Mr. Prabakaran, and how he had influenced both of us,” they said. They pointed out that Mr. Prabakaran was a member of the All India Bar Council irrespective of whether he was co-chairman or not.
The members said a committee of retired judges can be appointed to conduct the election as requested by Mr. Narayan.
