HC appoints commissioner for State Bar Council election

Chennai, Jan 12 (PTI): The Madras High today appointedJustice K P Sivasubramaniam (Retd) as Commissioner to overseeand monitor the elections to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu andPondichery, scheduled to be held on March 4.

Passing the order today on an application by Tamil NaduAdvocates Association, Justice V Ramasubramanian said theCommissioner would take charge of the election processimmediately and be in charge of supervising and monitoring ittill the results are declared.

As names of thousands of members were not found in draftvoters list due to non-payment of subscription and othercauses, the Judge directed the Bar Council Secretary to send acircular to all Bar Associations, informing them that the datefor subscription payment has been extended to January 24.

Justice Ramasubramanian said the ballot papers should beprinted in a Security Press as per the Commissioner''sdirection. Contesting candidates should ensure that festoons,flexboards, posters, banners and hand bills are not displayedor distributed in the Court campus. "Any violation of the samewould put their candidature/election in peril".

The court ordered the Advocate General to ensure thatadequate police protection is provided in all polling boothson the date of the poll.

The Judge said the court would monitor the progress of theentire election process till the results are announced.

Filing of nomination would begin from January 31 and end onFebruary 4.