CUTTACK: The Odisha State Bar Council (OSBC) started the process for identifying non-practising advocates from among those who have enrolled with it.
The OSBC has issued default notices to the advocates who had enrolled with it, but had not come forward and submitted declarations for verification of their law degree certificates so far.
Of the 55,000 enrolled advocates only around 32,700 have submitted applications for verification of their law degree certificates so far. OSBC secretary Jajati Samantasinghar said default notices have already been sent to nearly 18,000 of the advocates, who had not submitted the required declarations for verification of their law degree certificates. He said the default notices have been sent through registered post and in the process OSBC has spent nearly Rs 4 lakh.
“We will wait for their response for six months from the date of issue of the notice. Those who do not respond by then will be declared as non-practicing advocates,” the OSBC secretary told TOI on Tuesday. Accordingly, their names will not be included in the electoral roll for elections to the State Bar Council, he said.
The OSBC is the apex statutory body for 156 bars associations in the state. Advocate members of the bar associations affiliated to it elect 25 members for a five-year term and these members elect the chairman, vice-chairman and representative to BCI. Election of OSBC had not been possible ever since the expiry of its five-year term in May 2019 as final electoral roll had not been prepared due to non-completion of the verification process.
With the extended six months term expiring in November 2019, the Bar Council of India (BCI) constituted a special committee to carry forward OSBC. The BCI constituted special committee with advocate general Ashok Parija (who is the ex-officio member of OSBC) as chairman, senior advocate Manas Ranjan Mohapatra and advocate Ajay Kumar Baral (both as members of the committee) has been managing the State Bar Council affairs since November 5, 2019.
