Hyderabad: The long-pending dream of Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh advocates of having separate Bar Councils for their states is turning into reality four years after bifurcation.
The ground was set for constituting separate Bar Councils for Telangana and AP with the announcement of the election schedule for the new councils which would come into existence in the first week of July 2018 after the polls for both councils on June 29.
TS and AP lawyers have been struggling for the past four years for the bifurcation of the AP Bar Council and to set up separate Bar Councils since bifurcation on June 2, 2014.
The advocates have taken to the streets, boycotted courts and launched a legal battle for their right to have separate Bar Councils which is mandated under Section 3 of the Advocates’ Act, 1961 which stipulates that there shall be a Bar Council for each state.
The process of bifurcation of the existing Bar Council among the two states started by asking the existing members to opt for the state of their choice, after the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Ms Renuka Reddy, secretary to the AP Bar Council, who is presently overseeing the election process for the Councils, said “The existing AP State Bar Council is one of the largest statutory bodies of professionals having statutory duties such as enrolment of law graduates as advocates, regulating the legal practice of advocates, initiating action against erring advocates and also taking up welfare activities/schemes for the benefit of advocates.”
She said that at present there were more than 97,630 advocates on the rolls of the AP State Bar Council, who elect the members of the Bar Council.
The secretary explain-ed that clause (b), sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Act, 1961, lays down that a State Bar Council with an electorate exceeding 10,000 advocates shall consist of 25 members and keeping in view this rule, both states shall have councils with 25 members each.
She explained that though there were more than 40,000 members in each state after bifurcation, only 27,600 members in AP and 20,077 members in Telangana would have voting rights as per rules. Only members who have the certificate of practice will have right to vote in the elections.
All legal stalwarts vie for posts at bar
Several stalwarts, including the present chairman and almost all the existing members of the AP Bar Council, are contesting in the elections to the Bar Councils of AP and Telangana state.
Advocates who had taken an active part in the agitation for a separate Telangana and a separate HC for AP and separate Bar Councils for Telangana and AP will be trying their fortunes in the ensuing elections.
Bar Council members Harinath, Sunil Goud, Ananthasen Reddy and K. Lakshman Kumar are contesting for the Telangana Bar Council and Mr A. Narasimha Reddy who held the post of chairman of AP Bar Council two terms is contesting from Telangana state.
Mr Lakshman Kumar had resigned in protest against not constituting a separate council for Telangana state.
Mr Gandra Mohan Rao, one of the leaders of the Telangana Advo-cates Joint Action Co-mmittee (TAJAC) and also former president of the Telangana High Courts Advocates Ass-ociation and another leader of the TAJAC, Mr Puligori Goverdhan Reddy, are also in the fray.
The existing memb-ers in the Bar Council from Andhra Pradesh — Mr K. Chidamba-ram, Mr N. Dwarakan-ath Reddy, Mr Ram Reddy and Mr B.V. Murthy also testing their fortunes from Andhra. Mr C. Nageswara Rao, former public prosecutor and two-time president of AP HC Advocates Association is also in the race.
