Anmol Rattan re-elected HC Bar Assn president

Chandigarh, April 7

After neck-and-neck race, seven-time resident Anmol Rattan Sidhu was re-elected as the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association president after defeating his nearest rival Dinesh Kumar Sharma by 63 votes.

Anmol Rattan Sidhu bagged 1,770 votes, while 1,707 votes were polled in Dinesh Kumar Sharma’s favour. Third lawyer in the fray, Chouhan Satvinder Singh Sisodia, was left far behind with 86 votes.

The counting saw constant change of fortunes with Sidhu and Sharma racing ahead of each other after different rounds. In all, 3,700 lawyers out of the 4,642 eligible voters exercised their right to elect the office-bearers of the Bar Association on Friday. The counting continued till wee hours.

For the vice-president’s post, Randeep Singh Waraich emerged victorious after a triangular contest with Gurvinder Singh Sandhu and Vikas Malik.

Baltej Singh Sidhu emerged victorious in the triangular contest witnessed for the secretary’s post with Amandeep Singh Manaise and NK Verma.

For the joint secretary’s post, Parminder Kaur Channa emerged victorious after defeating Rachna Rudra, while for the treasurer’s post Manu Luna was the obvious choice of the voters against Saurabh Sharma.

As the results came pouring, advocates and more advocates joined heavily garlanded Sidhu in pre-victory procession. A continuous stream of advocates could be seen congratulating him as he expressed his gratitude to the voters.

Senior advocate Sidhu said protection of respect and dignity of the lawyers would be top on his agenda. He said his tenure would also see the initiation of steps to further improve the infrastructure.

Healthier Bench-Bar relationship and transparency were among the other areas of concern. He also promised better accountability. Efforts to make the High Court a more financially viable place for the youngsters too was on his agenda, said Sidhu.

The contest for the president’s post this time was keen with no less than three candidates in the fray. — TNS

Fact file

Anmol Rattan Sidhu bagged 1,770 votes while 1,707 votes were polled in Dinesh Kumar Sharma’s favour. Third lawyer in the fray, Chouhan Satvinder Singh Sisodia, was left far behind with 86 votes.