Cuttack: Orissa High Court has set a two-month deadline for election of chairman of the Odisha State Bar Council (OSBC).

The high court fixed the deadline on Monday while adjudicating on the months-old dispute over election of chairman.

Advocate members of 156 bar associations across the state affiliated to the OSBC elect 25 members for a five-year term and these members subsequently elect the chairman, vice-chairman and the representative to the Bar Council of India (BCI).

After election of members in June 2014, advocate Manas Ranjan Mohapatra was elected as chairman. However, Mohapatra resigned citing personal reasons in July 2017. The post had since remained vacant while vice-chairman Debadatta Mishra has been in charge.

The matter reached the high court with one of the members - Manas Kumar Chand - filing a petition seeking direction to all the members to cooperate with the advocate general for holding the election of chairman.

Initially, most of the elected members requested the advocate general (who is an ex-officio member) to supervise the election for a new chairman.

But the election scheduled on January 21 hit a roadblock with the court issuing two days before it an interim stay order on the holding of election.

The interim stay order was issued after member Atma Prakash Mohanty filed a petition questioning the capacity of the advocate general to hold the election to fill up the casual vacancy arising due to resignation of the chairman.

The division bench of chief justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi then appointed advocate Chinmay Mohanty, a member of the council, as interim chairman, till election of a regular chairman within two months.