2,000 advocates lose bar body membership

09 Feb’ 2010, Satya Prakash, Hindustan Times

New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the interim board of management (IBOM) of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Monday cancelled memberships of nearly 2,000 advocates after finding large scale irregularities in making them members of the Bar body.

The IBOM, headed by senior counsel and former SCBA president K.K. Venugopal, noted that membership forms were bought in bulk and "groups of persons were funded towards admission fee...by individuals who had purchased en-bloc pay orders."

The IBOM was appointed last month after the SCBA Executive Committee was dissolved due to breach of procedure and infighting between two groups over admitting new members, alleged tampering with certain documents and running of the Bar canteen.

In meetings held on September 19 and December 19, last year, the SCBA membership committee reportedly recommended 562 and 1,485 advocates for membership, respectively.

After examining the records, the IBOM cancelled the new memberships, as the applications were not in order.

In many applications, addresses, proof of LL.B., enrollment certificates, etc., were the same. The IBOM wondered how the membership committee interviewed 1,485 candidates in less than five hours. "None of them has been admitted as members of SCBA," the IBOM said.

"Consequently, membership cards, library cards and proximity cards wrongly issued to these 562 would stand withdrawn and shall not be used anymore," the IBOM said.
"The eligibility of these 562 and 1,485 applicants will have to be examined afresh and interviews held for each one of the applicants," it added.

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