Council cries foul

Most of these fake papers uniformly granted first preference votes to one particular advocate, who was serially listed as 65 among the 96 contestants. It is now suspected that the bogus votes were cast with the specific intention of electing that particular advocate. Although the council staff did not divulge the name of the advocate, the published list of elected candidates points to one Nandkumar Mothghare from Nagpur. The council has now asked the police to investigate into the credibility of the electoral process.

Counting for thepolls, which is a long process due to the preferential pattern of polling, began on February 16 and was wrapped up by Thursday. The 25 seats of the council were contested by 96 advocates in and around Mumbai. Of the 96, 71 lawyers lost, 14 were re-elected and 11 new members elected. Of the 25 elected, six are from Mumbai.

Three petitions have been filed against the elections in the Bombay High Court, alleging malpractices. Advocate General C J Sawant, an ex-officio member of the bar council, personally scrutinised the fake ballot papers and admitted that 343 postal ballot papers were "bogus". He assured the court that a criminal complaint would be filed after the electoral process was over.

Elections to the Bar Council, which is reconstituted every five years, have been due since the last nine months. In the absence of elections, an ad hoc committee, comprising the advocate general, outgoing chairperson and the member who is sent to the all-India council, were holding fort, and the elections were heldunder their supervision.

The bar council’s main functions include providing sanad to the law graduates, taking disciplinary action against professional misconduct and regulating the functioning of lawyers. This is the first time since the inception of the Bar Council in 1961, constituted under the Advocates’ Act, 1961, that malpractices in elections have been reported, informed Council secretary Kedarpawar.

Interestingly, advocate M P Vashi, who had questioned the credibility of the elections, has been elected to the body. When the counting commenced, Vashi had written to the Chief Justice, "Even if I will be elected, it will not be an honour for me to be part of the Bar Council". It now remains to be seen if Vashi surrenders his membership.