New office bearers at SCBA MN Krishnamani elected President for the fourth time

The results of the recently held elections to the 21 posts of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) were declared yesterday. Of the 1340 eligible voters, 1220 exercised their right to vote with Senior Advocate M.N. Krishnamani elected as the President of the SCBA. He defeated his nearest rival Senior Advocate Rupinder Singh Suri by 134 votes.

The results of the recently held elections to the 21 posts of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) were declared yesterday. Of the 1340 eligible voters, 1220 exercised their right to vote with Senior Advocate M.N. Krishnamani elected as the President of the SCBA. He defeated his nearest rival Senior Advocate Rupinder Singh Suri by 134 votes.

Speaking with Bar & Bench after his election victory, Krishnamani said that his foremost priority would be, “ streamlining and purifying the judicial appointments by fighting for the constitution of National Judicial Commission for recruiting judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court.”

According to Krishnamani, “The present collegium system has caused havoc in the entire system. This needs to be changed.”

With respect to judicial appointments at the lower level, Krishnamani said that was in favour of an All India Judicial Service which would hold recruitments through competitive exams. “People should be recruited through this competitive examination and posted in different places and not in their own state. This would have a very good affect because competitive persons and best talent from all over the country would come to the judiciary, which will improve overall justice delivery system”

He further observes that, “Right now, the High Court judges are selecting the lower court judges, which has resulted in lowering the efficiency and integrity in the lower courts. Therefore, that has to be changed. Thirdly, I want to humanise the legal profession so that lawyers do not exploit others and lawyers are looked upon as very respectable citizens. Majority of the lawyers are very good and sincere. Only 10 per cent of the lawyers and the judiciary are spoiling the name of the Bar and the Bench respectively.”

The other office bearers who were elected include Senior Advocate Vasdev Kailash, who was elected to the post of Vice President. Eight people had contested for the post of Vice President. Advocate Pareena Swarup has been elected the Honorary Secretary out of the 13 candidates who stood for the election.

Advocate Sandeep Singh was elected to the post of Assistant Secretary for which 6 candidates contested while Advocate V. K. Biju has been elected as Treasurer. Advocate Neeraj Kumar Sharma has been elected to the post of Assistant Treasurer.

Senior Advocates Anoop George Chaudhari, K. Radhakrishnan, S.B. Upadhyay, Pallav Shishodia, Brijender Chahar and Bhim Singh won the contest to the posts of Senior Executive Members out of the 11 who contested. Advocates Bina Madhavan, C. S. Ashri, Asha G. Nair, Pijush Kanti Roy, Vikrant Yadav, Vikas Bansal, Devashish Bharuka, Meenesh Kumar Dubey and Aftab Ali Khan have been elected as the 9 Executive Members out of the 53 who contested.

The elected members will hold the post for a period of one year.

Photo Courtesy: SCBA Website