No bar council elections will be held in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, predicted Bar Council of India (BCI) member from Andhra Pradesh N Ramchander Rao, because of the political climate in the states since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Rao said that the BCI had yesterday filed an application with the Supreme Court requesting for postponement of bar elections in the state, after the regulator had already announced 28 March as the polling date for that SBC as we reported yesterday.

“We don't know ma'am even if the Supreme Court forces us, we can't hold bar elections here. Andhra and Telangana is functioning with a special committee and it will continue to function with special committee,” he said.

He said that holding elections in the Andhra and Telangana bar council would result in violent clashes all over the state and threaten the law and order situation, which is why it asked the BCI to apply to the Supreme Court for postponement of elections in the state.

The number of voters on its electoral roll after it deleted around 40,000 advocates through the now concluded lawyer verification drive, stands at around 40,000 including both practising and non-practising advocates he said.

The special committee of the Andhra SBC has the state's advocate general D Prakash Reddy as its chairman and senior advocate Ghanta Rama Rao and advocate A Narasimha Reddy as members.

All SBCs have been functioning with a special committee each for several months now in the absence of contested bar elections for the last 3-4 years, and the Supreme Court has firmly pushed for over one year now to get on with state bar council elections eventually ordering them to conclude polling in the first quarter of 2018.