Provisional members’ names leave BBA poll officials in fix

Vadodara: Election officials of Baroda Bar Association (BBA) are in a fix after declaring the final list of voters for the upcoming polls of the association. A city-based advocate has written to the elections officials and the current officer-bearers of the association pointing out that the list also includes provisional members.

According to the final list approved by Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG), 2,258 advocates are eligible to vote for the polls scheduled to be held on December 22.

But, since the list also includes provisional members of the association, advocate Hitesh Gupta first submitted an application to the election officials on December 13 and then wrote again on Saturday to review the list. In his letter, Gupta has asked them to consider the resolution of Bar Council of India, which says that those lawyers who are provisionally enrolled and have not cleared All India Bar Examination don’t have right to vote.

“The said list is required to be reviewed and names of all such provisionally enrolled members required to be immediately removed,” he said in the letter. In the past too, similar issue had cropped up and it was decided that provisionally enrolled members cannot exercise their right to vote.

Gupta has also pointed out to the fact that in the elections of Supreme Court Bar Association and high court bar association, provisionally enrolled members are not allowed to vote.

“As soon as we got the application, we forwarded it to BCG to take a call on it,” said Madhukar Pathak, chief election officer. Another election official said since the elections are being held according to the rules of BCG, we do not have powers to decide on the voters’ list.

It is for the first time that the association has introduced ‘one bar, one vote’ policy according to regulations of BCG. Under this policy, unlike previous times, advocates can vote for any one bar association of the state.


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