SC lawyers’ body rift spills out into open

NEW DELHI: The drama over former law minister Ram Jethmalani’s “election” as interim president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and his withdrawing from the scene in less than 24 hours has triggerred a verbal duel between him and another legal stalwart, K K Venugopal.
Venugopal, along with senior advocates P P Rao and P H Parekh has been managing affairs of SCBA as interim board of management since January.Jethmalani was accused of barging into the association’s office on Tuesday and attempting to take over the reins forcibly.
Jethmalani on Wednesday issued a rejoinder to circular issued by IBOM. He narrated sequence of events leading to his election and being uncharitably forced out and said Venugopal had “shown great happiness” on his being made SCBA’s interim chief till scheduled elections of advocates’ body on May 7.