Voting for UP Bar Council polls cancelled following chaos | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The third phase of Uttar Pradesh Bar Council elections in Lucknow were disrupted Tuesday owing to an unexpectedly large number of advocates and the chaos that ensued. As soon as voting began in the morning, the sheer number of lawyers overwhelmed all arrangements. Meanwhile, in the afternoon, some ballot papers were spotted outside the polling station, prompting several contesting lawyers to shout slogans. The situation quickly escalated, and a commotion erupted inside the polling station prompting voting to halt around 4 pm.The returning officer, Justice (retd) AK Tripathi, and observer Justice (retd) Surendra Singh, in an order, said that voting conducted on Tuesday till afternoon had been cancelled and the January 28 polling has also been postponed. The next date for voting will be decided later. The third phase of Bar Council elections was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in 18 districts, including Lucknow, Kanpur, and Meerut. In Lucknow, the voting took place in the High Court premises, where more than 25,000 advocates from the Awadh Bar Association, Central Bar Association, Lucknow Bar Association, and several tehsil bar associations were to exercise their right to vote. The voting was scheduled for January 27 and 28. Seeing the situation escalate on Tuesday, Justice (retired) A.R. Masoodi, a member of the high-powered Election Committee formed by the Supreme Court to conduct the U.P. Bar Council elections, addressed the lawyers and stated that the elections would be conducted in accordance with their wishes. He added that he had taken all matters into consideration. It should be noted that elections for the UP Bar Council are held every five years. Due to the delay in the elections, the matter reached the Supreme Court, after which, on its orders, these elections were conducted under the supervision of a high-powered election committee, in four phases, the third phase of which was scheduled to be completed on Tuesday and Wednesday. A total of 2,99,808 advocate voters in the state have to exercise their franchise in all four phases.
