Once bitten, Bar Council is twice shy

The election calendar of events is scheduled to begin on April 18 and the KSBC has appointed a six-member committee comprising Advocate General Ashok Harnahalli, Mangalore-based advocate Seetharam Shetty, C Shivakumar, Rajendra Desai, Basavaraj Kareddy (all Bangalore) and S S Kumman from Gulbarga. The Bar Council passed a resolution to form the committee following complaints of malpractice in previous elections.

“There were complaints that ballot papers were issued to particular candidate after the first voting was completed. There was also a complaint that after the polling was over, remaining blank ballot papers were cast in favour of a particular candidate. We do not want such incidents this time,” said Jayakumar S Patil, President, KSBC.

However, the problems for the Bar Council are far from over as an advocate, Gururaj Joshi, has challenged the electoral roll which has names of sitting and retired judges including Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde and even the names of advocates who have died. 

With the filing of nomination set to begin on April 30, the Bar council has already appointed returning officers (RO) and for the first time two additional ROs have been appointed.

“Normally, the Secretary of KSBC is appointed as RO, but since he is tied up with various activities this time, we have appointed B N Jayaram, former employee of KSBC and Kanika Raj, another advocate as additional ROs. They will have same powers as ROs,” said Patil.

Though the local advocates’ associations’ presidents are appointed as election observers as well as observers to the polling booths, the KSBC this year has appointed an independent observer and election officers, who will be collecting the ballot boxes after the elections and will deliver them to the designated place or districts.

Schedule

* April 30: Last date for filing nominations
* May 3: Scrutiny of nominations
* May 6: Date of publication of valid nominations
* May 11: Last date for withdrawal of nomination
* May 12: Date of publication of final list of contestants
* June 9: Election