Bhubaneswar: Over 40,000 voters are expected to exercise their franchise for the Odisha State Bar Council (OSBC) election which is being held today across the state.
The polling which began at 8 AM will continue till 3 PM. The counting of votes is scheduled to be begun after 4 PM and thereafter the results will be announced.
It may be mentioned that OSBC is the apex statutory body for more than 180 Bar associations in the state. Members of these Bar associations elect 25 members which includes president, vice-president, secretary and join-secretary.
These members in turn elect the chairman, vice-chairman and a representative to the Bar Council of India.
It is learnt that elections to 180 bar associations across the State is underway under ‘One Bar One Vote’ rule.
The ‘One Bar One Vote’ rule is a part of the guidelines set up by the Supreme Court in 2015 to identify the number of genuine advocates practising in various courts across the country. Though the rule allows the advocates a multitude of membership of various bars, it gives them only one voting right.
In order to implement the rule, State Bar Council had unanimously passed a resolution to hold elections to all the affiliated Bar Associations across the state on the last Saturday of March every year.
