Bhubaneswar : Elections to 167 bar associations across the State is underway under ‘One Bar One Vote’ rule.
Of the total 50,000 lawyers in the state, 27,414 are said to be participating in the elections to 167 Bar Associations across the state. As per the rule, a lawyer can franchise their vote in one bar association only.
Mobile phones and cameras have been banned inside the polling booth to ensure smooth polling. It is mandatory for the voters to carry identity proofs with them while going to cast their votes.
For Bhubaneswar Bar Association, three candidates are contesting for the post of the President and five for the post of the Secretary.
The ‘One Bar One Vote’ rule is a part of the guidelines set up by the Supreme Court in 2015 to identify the number of genuine advocates practising in various courts across the country. Though the rule allows the advocates a multitude of membership of various bars, it gives them only one voting right.
In order to implement the rule, State Bar Council February 24 had unanimously passed a resolution to hold elections to all 167 affiliated Bar Associations across the state on the last Saturday of March every year.
For the first time elections to form executive bodies of different bar association in Odisha were held simultaneously on Saturday. There are 167 bar associations in the state, including that of the Orissa High Court Bar Association and elections to form their respective executive bodies were held peacefully under “one bar one vote” principle, informed the State Bar Council Secretary Jajati Keshari Samantsinghar.
Elections were held from 8 am to 2 pm. Counting of votes was taken up thereafter and was continuing. “We are monitoring the elections across the state,” Samantsinghar said adding there are over 50,000 advocates registered with the State Bar Council. Each bar has been provided with a list of advocates with their choice of bar to take part in the election.
Following Supreme Courts guidelines on “one bar one vote” and the Orissa High Courts ruling on this, the State Bar Council had issued a notification on February 24 to hold the elections in all bars except for those, whose terms of the executive council were not over.
The Orissa High Court, however, earlier this month made it clear that the annual elections of the entire bar associations should be held simultaneously on one day and preferably by March-end every year.