Law and Common man

By Anil C. Singh, Chairman, Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa

The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa had conducted a function on 24th September, 2011 at Bombay Exhibition Center, Hall No. 2, NESCO Complex, Western Express Highway, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400 063. The Agenda of the program was Law and Common Man. In fact, the Hon’ble Chief Minister had agreed to be a chief guest of the said function, but unfortunately due to demise of the senior congress leader Mr. Vasant Sathe, he was not able to attend the function. However, he instructed his Minster of Health Hon’ble Suresh Shetty to address the function on his behalf. Several luminaries of legal fraternity including Shri. Rajendra Raghuvanshi (Ex Vice Chairman of Bar Council of India) and Shri. Ravi Kadam (Advocate General) along with Shri Anil C. Singh, Chairman of Bar Council Of Maharashtra & Goa were present on dais. Shri Anil C. Singh stated that there are around 1,36,000 advocates enrolled to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, which is the apex body for advocates for the State of Maharashtra and Goa. This is a Golden Jubilee year of Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa which was established after the Advocate Act 1961 came into force.
Hon’ble Chairman Shri. Anil C. Singh further stated that, he is grateful to the Lawyers and Managing Committee, who have shown trust on him and appointed him as unopposed Chairman of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa and assured that, he will do of his best to live up to the expectation and trust shown by all advocates by making him win the election by huge majority.
Shri Anil Singh highlighted that, there were two state level conferences, recently one at Nashik, which was attended by around 2500 Advocates and second at Solapur which was attended by around 1800 Advocates. Further, he congratulated his team for conducting several full-fledged training programs of continuous legal learning for Advocates. He stated that, considering the plight of lawyers with regard to financial facility, Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has supported and facilitated the formation of Indian Multi State Multi Purpose Society Limited. Further, the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has opened office in Aurangabad and is in the processes of opening the office at Nagpur very soon. Further, he also informed that, with the initiative of Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, laptop scheme was floated with the help of Dell wherein computers with market approx value of Rs. 35,000/- was provided to members at concessional rate of Rs. 23,400/- only. The option was given to members to avail software of approx. Rs. 50,000/- by at concessional rate of additional sum of Rs. 6,600/- only. He further informed that, the lecture series at Dindoshi Court will also commence soon and a state level conference for Lawyers in Mumbai will be organized in the month of November or December. He stated that, there are several more schemes in pipelines which will be arranged from time to time. Coming to the Agenda of Law and Common Man, he stated that, the common man lost confidence and in law and its mechanism have started anti-social elements approaching, police & politicians to resolve the grievance which much have been in Courts. He stated that, this is a matter of great concern and asked colleague lawyers to endeavor to ensure faith in law.
For the purpose of achieving Law for Common man he put up an Agenda for the Government requesting the Government to provide proper facilities to lawyers as many law graduates now opt for corporate rather than practice at Bar. He pointed out to the lack of infrastructure like lack of sitting place for litigants, small bar room at various subordinate courts, lack of storage facilities for proceedings and requested the Government to look into the same. He also informed that, the jurisdiction of City Civil Court needs to enhanced as per 1982 Act and the infrastructure is ready for the same . This will facilitate advocates as well as litigants.
Apart from this, several eminent speaker like Hon’ble Shri. Rajendra Raghuvanshi, Hon’ble Shri. Satish Deshmukh, Hon’ble Shri. Ashish Deshmukh Hon’ble Shri. Milind Thobde, Hon’ble Shri. Jayant Jaibhave also put up their view by concurring with the view of Hon’ble Chairman.
It was a very coordinated atmosphere wherein more than 2000 Advocates, mainly from suburb attended and were delighted to have such a function at their door steps.