Why this year’s Pune Bar Association election has been postponed twice

Voting for the Pune Bar Association election will now take place on Feb 21. This year, ballot paper will be used instead of EVMs in the wake of issues and complaints during last year’s polls.

A day prior to the voting, a group of senior lawyers raised the issue of alleged bogus voters in the voting list. (Representational Photo)

Voting for the Pune Bar Association (PBA) committee has been postponed for the second time this year, in an unprecedented scenario, over allegations of irregularities in the voting list. The election, which was originally scheduled to take place on January 31, was postponed to February 16 after a group of lawyers – including past presidents of the PBA – wrote to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa raising allegations about the registration of bogus members and procedural irregularities.

On Thursday, the officials responsible for holding the election said that since they were busy submitting documents and arguments to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, the preparations for the election could not be completed and thus the voting was postponed again to February 21.

The complaints

As per tradition, the PBA election takes place on January 31 every year. This year, it was scheduled to take place on the same day with 18 contenders in the fray for the posts of president, vice-president, secretaries and treasurer. As many as 7,800 lawyer members were slated to vote in the poll.

However, a day prior to the voting, a group of senior lawyers raised the issue of alleged bogus voters in the voting list. Specifically, they objected to 1,837 names in the list, alleging that they do not practice in Pune district courts and were from other districts. They also wrote to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa seeking intervention.

“After the complaint, we formed a scrutinising panel which is cross-checking the address proofs submitted by the members while registering with the PBA. This will help us weed out people who are not from here,” said advocate N D Patil who is the Election Commissioner for the process.

Ballot voting

While the PBA has held its past few elections on electronic voting machines (EVM), this time ballot voting will take place. A section of PBA members had demanded this “to avoid controversy”.

Senior lawyer and former PBA president advocate Milind Pawar, who was among the lawyers who wrote to the Bar Council, said that there was a strong demand from members for ballot voting due to confidence issues with EVM.

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“Last year, when the voting happened on EVM, there were objections and a lot of chaos during the voting. It had to be stopped several times. People alleged that the voting process was manipulated. This issue was discussed during the general body meeting of the PBA and a resolution was passed that the next election will happen on ballot. However, the current committee was adamant on EVM. Following this, we wrote to the Council,” said Pawar.

Advocate Patil confirmed that the coming election will take place on ballot paper. He said the Bar Council has to conduct the poll strictly following the constitution of the Pune Bar Association. “Since the PBA constitution has no mention of EVMs and only mentions ballots, we will go with ballot voting this time,” he said.

The counting of votes will take place on February 21 immediately after voting is closed.

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