Madras High Court Advocates Association election postponed, following booth capturing

The association is one of the largest in T.N.; elections were being held at the Madras High Court campus following an order by the Court, however chaos ensued and the Acting Chief Justice has agreed to look into the issue on Monday afternoon

Elections to the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA), one of the largest Bar associations in Tamil Nadu, were disrupted on Monday, due to booth capturing, according to Teller Committee chairman and Senior Counsel, M.K. Kabir.

Following chaos at the election venue inside the Madras High Court campus, Mr. Kabir told the media that unruly behaviour by certain elements appeared to be a deliberate attempt to create trouble and get the elections postponed. “It is unfortunate that even booth capturing has taken place due to the introduction of QR codes. We regret it. Elections will stand postponed. We will inform this to the honourable Acting Chief Justice (ACJ),” he said.

Mr. Kabir also said that the unsavoury incidents would be brought to the notice of a Division Bench headed by Justice R Mahadevan who had ordered the conduct of the long-pending elections in a peaceful manner. It would be up to the ACJ and the Division Bench to decide on the next date and venue for the elections, he added.

In the meantime, a large number of advocates led by N.G.R. Prasad too, made a mention before ACJ T. Raja, who agreed to look into the issue on Monday afternoon.

According to the MHAA website, the association was started in 1889, and had elite members who included freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and former President R Venkataraman. Though the association claims to have more than 13,000 members, a Teller Committee constituted to conduct this year’s election had identified around 4,750 eligible voters.

The voter list had been prepared after cross-verification with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and after following various criteria for being eligible to vote. There are nine candidates in the fray: R. Balasubramanian, S. Mahaveer Shivaji, G. Mohanakrishnan, A. Mohandoss, S. Padma, R.C. Paul Kanagaraj, C. Rajashekaran, K. Sathyabal and M. Velmurugan, for the post of president.

Similarly, eight candidates are contesting for the post of vice president, 10 for the post of secretary, nine for the post of treasurer, 12 for the post of librarian and many others for the posts of executive members. The election was scheduled from 10 am to 5 pm at the new auditorium complex inside the Madras High Court campus and the results were expected to be announced by the end of the day.