‘Some members now airing different views on Tomar’

The Bar Council of Delhi chairman on Sunday said it was “unfortunate” that some members of the body are now denying giving consent to filing a police complaint against Delhi Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar over the alleged forgery of his educational certificates.

Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) chairman K K Manan said the decision to send a forgery complaint against Tomar, who has been accused of possessing a fake educational degree, was taken in presence of the members and that he has again called a meeting on May 20 to resolve the issue.

“It is unfortunate. I will not comment on it. Everything was passed in their (council members) presence. The decision was taken in their presence... I don’t know what has happened now. I have called a meeting on Wednesday (May 20) and I will get signatures of all the members on each and every document now,” Manan said.

The issue cropped up after a group of 10 BCD members recently wrote a letter to the chairman claiming that the decision to send a complaint to <g data-gr-id="52">police</g> regarding the alleged forgery was taken without their consent. The lawyers alleged that in the council’s May 8 meeting, it was decided to grant reasonable time to Tomar for filing his reply to the allegations and he should also be supplied the adverse material which was sought to be used against him. They claimed no such resolution was passed authorising the Honorary Secretary of BCD to lodge any complaint with the police authorities regarding the alleged forgery.

“Needless to say that we do not appreciate and approve the action of the Hony Secretary while going to the media as well as complaining to the police without there being <g data-gr-id="59">mandate</g> from the council. On being asked, the Hony Secretary had orally confirmed that the complaint to the police was sent as per your (chairman) instructions. 

“Majority of us who were present on May 8 did not consent for such an action. The Bar Council of Delhi being a statutory authority, comprising learned advocates, can ill-afford such a criticism about its inability to follow the law of the land,” the 10 members said. The 10 signatories include DHCBA President Rajiv Khosla, former BCD chairpersons Rakesh Tiku and R S Chauhan, former BCD secretaries Rana <g data-gr-id="55">Paveen</g> Siddiqui and Murari Tiwari.

They urged the chairman to call an urgent meeting of the council to avoid <g data-gr-id="29">occurrence</g> of such things in future.

“We are also pained to note that it has been stated in the complaint dated May 11, that a prima facie case has been established against Jitender Tomar. This was not the view of the Council nor could it be so till such time the version of the affected party had come on record and had been considered by the council.