Vasantrao Salunke Re-Elected To Bar Council Of Maharashtra & Goa For Record Fifth Time

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Senior advocate Vasantrao Digambarrao Salunke has been elected to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa for the fifth consecutive term, creating a record in the Council’s 65-year history. He is the first and only member to achieve this milestone.

The results of the election for 25 seats in the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa were declared on June 6. The election was held on March 24 and saw 155 candidates in the fray. Of the 92,051 votes cast, 88,357 were declared valid, while 3,694 were rejected.

Adv. Salunke secured 1,812 first-preference votes. The first-preference vote list was announced on June 4. After the counting and transfer process, his final vote value reached 369,330.

Adv. Salunke has been practising at the Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad Bench since its establishment in 1982. He has been a member of the Bar Council since 1998 and served as its chairman during 2022-23.

Over the years, he has guided and trained more than 200 legal professionals. Many of them later became district judges, judicial magistrates first class (JMFCs), and law officers. Advocates and well-wishers have congratulated him on his re-election.

Speaking after his victory, Adv Salunke credited advocates from farming, working-class, underprivileged and Bahujan communities for his success. He said efforts to strengthen e-Courts and e-Libraries had been successful in the past and that he would continue working for the development of the legal profession.

He said one of his main priorities during the new term would be strengthening the Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Lawyers’ Academy and Training Centre at Taloja. He added that the academy would help create better opportunities for legal education and produce highly skilled legal professionals.