HYDERABAD: A member of the Telangana Bar Council has accused the chairman and secretary of the council of misappropriating money deposited by advocates who had enrolled themselves in the council.
B Shanker, an elected member of the Bar Council of Telangana, alleged on Sunday that the council did not account for the money collected from the advocates.
He further alleged that the accounts were not properly audited and presented before the High Court Bifurcation Committee. Shanker alleged that the chairman A Narsimha Reddy and secretary Renuka illegally misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 2 to Rs 3 crore.
Speaking at a press conference along with fellow advocates, Shanker said, “I noticed that there are discrepancies in the accounts.
"The details of the huge amounts collected through welfare tickets and gap fees are not available. They provided me with the accounts, but it doesn’t have the columns of income and expenditure. I suspect in each head there is misappropriation from 2006, when Narasimha Reddy was first elected as Chairman.”
Shanker said though library fees are being collected since a long time, there is no library for the Bar Council.
According to the Rule 168 of the Bar Council — a statutory body — the money received shall be credited into the bank account by the next working day. However, the bank statement of the ‘Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh Certificate Verification Fees’ account provided by Shanker showed that Rs 87.34 lakh was deposited on December 9, 2019 with six cash deposit vouchers violating the rules.
On being contacted, Reddy refuted the allegations, stating that everything was done as per the constitution of the Bar Council.
“I don’t even avail allowances for which I am entitled for. One has to consider the fact that amongst all the 25 elected members, why is he alone making such comments? It’s only to lower the prestige of the institution. Shanker is making false allegations as the council took investigated him over a complaint four years ago,” said Reddy.