Vijayawada: As lawyers met here, it was a free-for-all. High tension prevailed at the general body meeting of the Andhra Pradesh high court bar association as two groups of advocates engaged in heated arguments, followed by a manhandling that left Bar Council member Ch. Ajay Kumar seriously injured on Thursday.
The bone of contention between the two groups was the model bylaws of the Bar Council. One group backed it so that they could go ahead with elections to the association that was delayed due to Covid-19. Another group wanted to dump the bylaws.
The Bar Association election was held in 2019-2020 and its tenure ended by March 31 last year. Due to the prevalence of Covid-19, no fresh election was held. Bar association secretary P. Raman called a general body meeting at 4 pm on Thursday.
As the meeting was in progress and the majority of the members were in favour of adopting the bylaws and holding of polls, a section of the advocates wanted to defer the exercise so as to avoid the polls.
As per norms, unless the association adopts the model bylaws, its members are not eligible to avail a series of welfare scheme benefits like death-related assistance. The majority of the members are learnt to be keen on adopting the model bylaws.
Bar council member Ajay Kumar was in favour of adopting the model bylaws and was targeted by those who opposed it. He was given the first aid. The meeting was held at the high court advocates canteen premises. The advocates in favour of adoption of common bylaws staged a protest and condemned the assault on Kumar.
