Punjab and Haryana HC Bar poll committee refuses to hold elections

Source:- hindustantimes

The election committee of Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association (PHHCBA) has refused to conduct elections for the high court Bar association.

It was on Thursday that the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana (BCPH), a statutory body, had asked district Bars in both the states and Chandigarh; and high court Bar association to hold elections for the executive committee on September 30 and October 1.

The high court has nearly 4,000 registered voters. As of BCPH, it has over 1 lakh advocates as members in two states and Chandigarh and oversees the functioning of Bar associations.

Chairman election committee, senior advocate, KS Sidhu in a letter to BCPH has said that the election committee met on Friday and unanimously decided not to participate in the elections. Thirteen out of 16 members had participated in the online meeting. On the one hand, Bar Council is making an endeavour to have the physical hearing of the cases expressing problems of online hearing but on the other hand, taking a contradictory stand to hold online elections without any serious necessity, the letter stated that many advocates have gone back to their native places with no online infrastructure to participate in voting.

“The elected members of the committee stated that neither are any provisions in the Advocates Act or the rules which authorised Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana to suo motu conduct the elections of any Bar associations without the request of the concerned Bar nor there is any emergency of holding the elections,” the letter reads. It also says that two of the judges refused to be associated with the BCPH move because of a lack of transparency and secrecy of votes in the online mode, which is of paramount importance.