An electoral roll revision has triggered a furore in the state bar council.
The names of over 17,000 members of the West Bengal Bar Council have been deleted from the list of voters with less than two months left before the bar council votes for a new executive committee.
Some of the axed voters have filed a PIL in the high court, challenging the council’s decision to trim the list.
After the deletion, the number of voters is around 90,000, said sources.
The list was published last week.
The bar council elections are due on February 19.
A new executive committee will be set up with 21 office bearers on the basis of the poll results.
The case is likely to be heard next week. The court re-opens after the Christmas
and New Year break on Monday.
The petitioners have cited how names of prominent members like chief minister Mamata Banerjee; minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya; senior Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy and Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee have been deleted.
“If they are not practising lawyers, then the name of the council chairman should also be deleted on the same grounds. But his name is there on the list,” said a petitioner.
Calls to Ashok Deb, the council chairman, from this newspaper went unanswered.
The petitioners also challenged the legality of the decision of the council to hike the deposit that a candidate needs to make to contest the polls from ₹30,000 to ₹1.2 lakh.
The Bar Council of India monitors the state council polls.
Each member state sends a representative to the national council.
Deb is the current representative from Bengal.