Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The controversy over the irregularity in the issuance of ID cards to new members of the Indore Bar Association has now snowballed. Fingers are being pointed at the former president of Indore District Bar Association for issuing the cards without due process being followed even as he along with the secretary and treasurer has been issued a show cause notice by the Special Committee set up by the State Bar Council and now they are at loggerheads. The Special Committee was set up on November 25 after the Bar Association Committee was dissolved as the elections of the Association were not conducted in time. Its coordinator, Sourabh Mishra said, “When the special committee took charge and verified the records and papers it found that applications for enrollment of around 400-500 advocates were pending.
“Thus the special committee decided to enroll these applicants according to their eligibility and issue ID cards to them. But to their surprise the committee members came to know that many of these applicants had already received their ID cards even though they had not been enrolled,” he added, saying, “This is a gross irregularity and needs to be probed.” He also expressed his doubt that some non-advocates might also have got the Association membership which could be misused. The committee members have started an investigation into the matter.
The former president of the association Gopal Kacholiya said in his response to the committee, “I have no clue of such thing having happened during the tenure of Bar Association Committee. It is the duty of the treasurer to collect money from members and it is the responsibility of the secretary to manage all these works. Investigation must be done and in case something wrongful has occurred then appropriate action must be taken.” Kacholiya said that he received the letter on December 14 and had responded to it on December 18.
While, secretary Ghanshyam Gupta said, “I received the letter on December 18 evening and will respond to it in some days. I will prove my point in my response letter that nothing illegal has taken place and everything has been done according to the procedure. No ID card gets validated without the signature of the association president,” he concluded.
