Madras high court reserves orders on one bar one vote system petition
Chennai: The Madras high court has reserved orders on a petition, which sought a direction to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to consider and pass orders on a representation, which among other things sought to implement strictly the one bar one vote system in the ensuing election to the office bearers of the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA).
A division bench comprising Justices N.Kirubakaran and S.S.Sundar reserved orders on the petition filed by advocate M.Sathyabal, after hearing elaborate arguments from the petitioner, senior counsel A.E.Chelliah, chairman of the teller committee, advocate Rajan, appearing for Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, advocate P.V.S.Giridhar, R.Sudha, former vice president of MHAA, R.Krishna Kumar, former secretary of MHAA, Kamaraj, former treasurer of MHAA and G.Rajesh, former librarian of MHAA. The proceedings were conducted through video conferencing.
The bench also heard the views and submissions of R.Murali, former vice president of MHAA, advocates Kalaimani, Mahavir Shivaji, Syed Arun and other advocates.
During the hearing, senior counsel Chelliah submitted a report to the court. After perusing the report, the bench headed by Justice Kirubakaran noted the pathetic condition of the library of MHAA as pointed out by the teller committee and asked former office bearers of MHAA as to why the library was not maintained properly and why a professional librarian was not appointed to man the library.
Stating that the voter list was already prepared by the Teller Committee by verifying the eligible voters, some advocates requested the court to conduct the election at the earliest. Some advocates pointed out that since the cut off date for collection of subscription amount was suddenly announced, some of the advocates were not aware of it and hence, they could not pay the subscription amount and therefore, they may be permitted to pay the subscription amount before the election.
In his representation, Sathyabal among other things requested implementation of one bar one vote system. Those who have given certificate of practice to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry alone should be considered for voting. After the last day for paying subscription the valid voters list (to be prepared by the committee) should be sent to BCTP for cross verification as to whether all these voters have submitted one bar one vote option and the certificate of practice. The BCTP has to verify the list sent by the MHAA election committee and prepare a separate voters list after verifying the "one vote one bar option given in the year 2016" and compare it with the list of advocates who have given the Certificate of Practice. The advocate members who have not given the above two should not be included in the voters list, Sathyabal added in his representation.
