SHILLONG: The listing of practicing and non-practicing lawyers is going on in the State following a directive from the Bar Council of India (BCI).
The Bar Council of Tripura has completed the exercise and a similar process is currently underway in Meghalaya. However, the peculiarity of Meghalaya is that till 2013, it was under the Gauhati High Court and all its lawyers were under the Bar Council of Assam (BCA). Following the formation of High Court of Meghalaya, 191 lawyers were transferred from BCA to Meghalaya out of 600 and the process of transfer is still ongoing.
A senior functionary of Meghalaya High Court Bar Association said that there is an ongoing process to form the Bar Council of Meghalaya and at present an ad hoc bar council is functioning under the Registrar General of High Court of Meghalaya, which is a temporary arrangement.
The office bearers said that they are in constant touch with the BCI and the process of transfer will be completed soon.
The functionary said that one of the main reasons behind the time consuming transfer process is that the BCA was the custodian of all northeastern states and “naturally the process of locating files is taking time”. However, he asserted that “very soon we will form the Bar Council of Meghalaya and hold elections “.
