BHUBANESWAR: The All Odisha Lawyers’ Association (AOLA) has urged the State Bar Council and the special committee of Bar Council of India to defer the implementation of Odisha State Bar Council Advocates Welfare Corpus Fund Rules, 2020. The AOLA said that the lawyers across the state are against the implementation of the corpus funds rules.
Odisha State Bar Council (OSBC) elections are due since May 2019. As the elections were not conducted, the Bar Council of India constituted a special committee in May 2019 to discharge the functions of the State Bar Council.
The responsibility of the committee was to conduct OSBC elections within six months from the date of its constitution. However, instead of conducting the elections, the committee went ahead and framed the Odisha State Bar Council Advocates Welfare Corpus Fund Rules, 2020.
“Due to the pandemic, the special committee did not take any steps to finalise the voters’ list and organise elections in a democratic manner. Rather, the committee kept extending its tenure,” said AOLA chairman Gyana Ranjan Mohanty in a press meet organised here on Saturday.
“We request the AG to postpone the implementation of corpus funds rules until the regular State Bar Council elections are conducted, he said.