Garhwal Post Bureau
Nainital, 16 Dec: Elections were held for the new Executive of the Uttarakhand High Court Bar Assocation, yesterday, and the results were declared late last night. DCS Rawat was declared elected as President while Saurabh Adhikari secured the post of General Secretary. Polling had begun at 10 a.m. yesterday and it continued till 4 p.m., after which counting of the votes began at 5 p.m. in the High Court premises.
By late last night, Rawat secured a decisive victory for the President’s post, polling a total of 668 votes. DK Joshi finished second with 251 votes, followed by Manisha Bhandari with 127 and Anjali Bhargav with 53. For the General Secretary’s post, Adhikari emerged victorious with 436 votes, narrowly defeating Akshay Latwal, who secured 419 votes, while Bhupendra Koranga received 246 votes.
In the contest for Senior Vice President (General), Sushil Vashisth won with 570 votes against Prem Kaushal’s 515. Meena Bisht secured the Women’s Vice President’s post with 723 votes, while Chetna Latwal received 356. Out of 1,779 registered voters, 1,112 advocates had cast their votes.
The results for various posts of the Nainital High Court Bar Association were announced around midnight. Enthusiasm among advocates remained high throughout the day during both polling and counting. Rawat maintained a clear lead from the beginning, ensuring nearly a one-sided victory for the President’s post, while the General Secretary race turned out to be a close contest between Adhikari and Latwal.
For the four posts of General Members, in the Junior Executive, eight candidates were in the fray: Devendra Singh, Gaurav Panwar, Neelam Godiyal, Pankaj Semwal, Ruchit Tiwari, Siddharth Singh Negi, Swaleha Husain (Sana), and Vikram Singh Dhapola. For the five Senior Executive Member posts, six nominations were filed, but after Saurabh Pandey withdrew, Bhuvanesh Joshi, Manoj Kumar Sharma, Niranjan Kumar Bhatt, Shivangi Gangwar, and Vishwa Prakash Bahuguna were elected unopposed.
Gaurav Kandpal was elected unopposed as Junior Vice President (General). Others elected unopposed included Vishwasth Kandpal for Deputy Secretary (Administration), Prasanna Karnataka for Deputy Secretary (Press), Avidit Nauliyal for Librarian, Shruti Joshi for Senior Executive (Women), and Unnati Pant for Junior Executive (Women).
Chief Election Officer Kurban Ali, along with Advisors Ravindra Singh Bisht, Kamlesh Kumar Tiwari, Rajesh Joshi, Bhaskar Joshi, Gopal K Verma, Rajkumar, Pradeep Lohani, SS Chaudhary, DS Bankoti, Kaushal Sah Jagati, Manish Bisht, Suryakant Maithani, Tapan Singh, Vikas Uniyal, Meenakshi Sharma, Raghav Singhal, Sheetal Selwal, Vandana Mehra, Rajni Supyal Latwal, and Sangeeta conducted the election process.
After his election, Rawat assured the member advocates that he would fulfil all the promises made during his campaign. He committed to supporting advocates in both challenging and joyful times and emphasised that the newly constructed advocates’ chambers would be allotted transparently to those in need. He also highlighted plans to work towards establishing a Tribunal Court within the High Court premises, implementing a PDF system in the library, and creating a fund for junior advocates.
During the polling, senior High Court Judges Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Rakesh Thapliyal, Pankaj Purohit, and Alok Verma visited the polling station. All of them are former members of the High Court Bar, with Manoj Kumar Tiwari having previously served as President of the Bar Association. Chief Election Officer Kurban Ali, Advisor Ravindra Bisht, Observer Senior Advocate MC Kandpal, Dr Mahendra Pal, and the rest of the election team ensured a peaceful and impartial process. Advocates from remote districts such as Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Chamoli, and Rudraprayag also travelled to cast their votes, ensuring a widespread participation in the election.
