The Madras High Court on Wednesday appointed a retired High Court Judge, Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam, to oversee and monitor the election of members to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu (BCT).
He should take charge forthwith and supervise and monitor the entire process till the declaration of results. The election is on March 4.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian passed the order on applications in a civil suit filed by the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association represented by its secretary M. Baskar.
Pending suit, the association had sought two interim reliefs – one for an injunction restraining the BCT from proceeding with the electoral process and the other for appointing a retired High Court Judge to conduct the election process. Senior Counsel S. Prabakaran, appearing for the association, said the challenge was to the election notification issued by the Advocate-General (AG) last month on two grounds. The resolutions passed by the BCT handing over the administration to the AG and notifying the election, were contrary to the Advocates Act.
Another objection was that the names of more than 13,000 advocates had been removed from the electoral roll on the ground that they had not paid their subscription, but without following the laid-down procedure. The BCT denied the applicant's averments. During the hearing, it was conceded by counsel appearing on both sides that the Bar Council elections should be conducted in a free and fair manner.
In his common order, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian said that the election schedule as contained in the notification published in the Tamil Nadu Government gazette on December 29 would remain as such. However, as the names of thousands of members were not found in the draft voter list, on account of non-payment of subscription and other causes, the BCT secretary should send a circular in consultation with Mr. Justice Sivasubramaniam (Commissioner), to all Bar associations/advocates associations informing them that the date for payment of arrears of subscription was being extended till January 24. The council secretary, who had been appointed Returning Officer, should take instructions from Commissioner.
