GVG’s son floats reforms in apex court Bar polls

Supreme Court lawyers are in a ferment over the proposal of introducing a debate among candidates in the elections of their Bar association....

Supreme Court lawyers are in a ferment over the proposal of introducing a debate among candidates in the elections of their Bar association. This has been floated by advocate G. Venkatesh Rao, who is, incidentally, the son of former Election Commissioner G V G Krishnamurthy.

Rao collected signatures of 550 advocates on a requisition to make the SC Bar Association consider the debate idea for the first time in its 52-year history in the run-up to its polls due on May 8.

The signatories to the requisition given on April 8 include senior advocates such as Fali Nariman, K K Venugopal, Ram Jethmalani, P P Rao, M N Krishnamani, Murli Bhandare, Justice Rama Jois and Justice U N Bachawat.

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Following this, the bar association issued a notice on April 15 to its 4,000-odd members saying its executive committee has ‘‘strongly recommended’’ to its election committee to hold a debate among the candidates for the posts of president and secretary.

But the election committee comprising three senior advocates said it couldn’t decide since that would amount to participating in the campaign, which is not within the purview of its functions.

The election committee’s chairman, additional solicitor general Altaf Ahmed, when contacted, said: ‘‘We are not against the idea of having a debate but it is not our job to hold it.’’ He said it was up to the executive committee and the candidates to find a way out.

The president of the bar association, Kapil Sibal, told The Indian Express that the executive committee is due to meet on Friday and he is confident that it will ensure that the debate is introduced in the current election.

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‘‘There are unsavoury practices in the politics of the bar, especially when we seek to elect office bearers. We need a more transparent system and the elections need to be fought on issues. That is why the executive committee responded so positively to the debate proposal,’’ Sibal added.

But Rao apprehends that there is a ‘‘covert attempt to sabotage the debate proposal’’ because it threatens the candidates who have been winning elections more on the basis of their ‘‘patronage network’’ at the bar than on any policies and programmes.

The 39-year-old Rao is offering himself as a candidate for the president’s post and he will be taking on senior advocates R K Jain and G L Sanghi.

Past presidents of the SC bar association include Motilal Setalvad, C K Daphtary, M C Chagla, A K Sen, V M Tarkunde, L M Singhvi and K K Venugopal. The posts of president and secretary carry prestige as well as influence because they often interact with the Chief Justice of India on a one-to-one basis.