Sondhi said that he felt good and that the win was a vindication of the tenets of his campaign.
"I think [it was] the cause we have propounded that here should be change in the Bar Council. Eight new faces have come in, all of whom are practising lawyers," he said.
"We feel that we'll be able to change the face of the Bar Council," he added.
Out of the total of 25 new members, eight were not incumbents (see full list below).
Sondhi came 22nd out of 25, but he maintained that his margin had always been secure throughout.
"We were never out of the safe zone," he said. "Between the second-to-last person we had more than 100 votes margin - it was a very safe margin."
Sondhi said that the Delhi High Court was an example to other courts around the country, having recently launched the first first digital court experiment and having started up an in-court abitration centre.
Sondhi was the only candidate from a major law firm contesting for the Delhi Bar Council election.
Luthra & Luthra managing partner Rajiv Luthra commented: "It was a very, very serious uphill task, simply because it was a first ever."
"Traditionally members of law firms don't go to vote," he added. "It was a real challenge."
Since the vote ended on 2 December, the laborious counting process has been ongoing. Visit our live Delhi Bar Council election coverage and find out more about how it all happened.
In Maharashtra and Goa, ALMT partner Hitesh Jain is also standing for election to the local Bar Council with voting set to take place on 7 January 2009 in courts throughout the state.
The confirmed list of all elected Delhi Bar Council winners:
Abhay Kumar Verma
Adish Chandra Aggarwala
Amit Sharma*
Jagdev
Jaiveer Nagar*
K K Manan
K K Sareen
Murari Tiwari
Nitin Alhawat*
O P Faizi
Puneet Mittal*
R S Chauhan
R S Goswami
Rajesh Mishra*
Rajinder Singh Rana
Rajiv Khosla
Rakesh Kochhar*
Rakesh Sherawat
Rakesh Tiku*
Ramesh Gupta
Rana Praween Siddiqui
Sarla Kaushik
Surya Prakash Khatri
Ved Prakash Sharma
Vijay Kumar Sondhi*
*denotes a non-incumbent
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A judgment like the one made, seems to have stemmed from a basic insecurity that we, Indians may get phased out of our professions in our own country but thats where regulated entry should come in, in a well thought out manner.
People who perhaps have not read the judgment have said that best friends should also be done away with based on the judgment. But little do they know that a 'best friends' is really just that....'A' from India is friendly with 'M' from UK or timbaktoo.....meaning that if A has any clients in timbaktoo...it will prefer to refer the matter to be handled by M and vice versa. There is no profit sharing from such an interaction. Additionally, the Bombay High Court judgment has said that non-litigous corporate work cannot be done by someone who is not enrolled with the bar Council of India....so the point really is in a 'best friends' relationship.....the lawyers in India who are practising are enrolled with the relevant bar councils....so really where does the point of illegality come in here? Everyone should take a deep breath.....read into all the facts before making sweeping statements and barring entry to foreign law firms....
The judgment is by far regressive. The approach really should be that foreign law firms should be allowed to enter subject to reciprocity and equal benefits and opportunities available to Indian lawyers abroad.
Also why is it that foreign partners come down to India to impart training to their Indian best friends including but not limited to sharing their IT by which I mean precedents etc.
Also so far as billing are concerned I wouldn't for the least bit be surprised if a foreign master is controlling how much its Indian best friend can bill to its clients i.e. the foreign firm's client. I am sure if the Income Tax authorities look at this angle it may surely open up a Pandora's box. Surely on the face of it, the look is that of an 'arms length' dealing but lift the veil and you will see or realize that they are nothing but foreign law firms in India which are hoping for the laws to relax so that they can change their name the very next day.
I beg the authorities to take stringent action against the partners and the associates. Debar them and initiate legal action, it is high time that 'goras', 'firangs' and their Indian slaves who more often than not are refugees from the 'Persian gulf' are booted out of the profession at least the Indian legal profession, I say.
in my view, the principle of reciprocity is important though one must provide for the relative stature of our legal education system while insisting on its implementation.
with due respect, the judiciary in our country is still taking time to evolve itself in the era of globalized world. it can take a leaf out of our bureacracy which- after a strong and very understandable initial resistance- has learnt to deal with the nuances of an open economy. while there can and should be healthy debate about the way to deal with such issues, the extent of regulation etc., the fact remains that we have no choice but to change with the times.
Lastly, we must not forget that the larger stakes involved here are not aof a handful of lawyers but of the masses who practice in local courts also and of the millions of people who pay for their services so that we can live in a fair and just society. therefore, there is absolutely no reason to feel insecure or threatened but we must be prepared to look inwards and see where we must improve, be more efficient and productive.
Anand
Congratulations on your splendid victory. Your victory is unprecedented. Never before in the history of Bar Council election, any candidate has secured 823 first preference votes in the first round of counting itself as you have done and got elected in the first round itself.
Hoping you will uphold the tradition of legal profession high and duly represent the interest of legal professionals in bar council.
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