Chetan Verma is DBA chief

Rajneesh Lakhanpal

Ludhiana, January 6

A sitting member of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Chetan Verma, was elected president of the District Bar Association (DBA) in the annual elections held today. He defeated his nearest rival candidate with a huge margin of 296 votes. Earlier, his father Vijay Verma remained president of the DBA thrice.

Young faces dominate the new DBA team. Voters have given chance to the young generation to work hard for the legal fraternity while utilising their energy. The elections remained less expensive this time in comparison to the past.

Chetan Verma got 1,148 votes, whereas his nearest rival candidate Naval Kishore Chhiber managed to garner 852 votes and 236 votes were polled in favour of third contender Gurvinder Singh Sodhi.

Out of total 2,732 voters 2,254 exercised the right to franchise. However, two votes were found to be invalid. Two voters were caught making video while casting votes. Their votes were cancelled.

Verma’s supporters were overjoyed as his victory was clear with the increasing margin of votes much prior to the official announcement of the result.

Former DBA president Vijay Verma, Navin Bawa, Tarun Lakhanpal, Shubham Malhotra, Parmod Kumar, Ajay Chopra, Rakesh Sharda, Lokesh Batta and Vishal Jain congratulated Verma on his victory.

Meanwhile, Karan Singh was elected for the post of the DBA vice president. He defeated his opponent Harjot Singh Harikay by a margin of 161 votes. Karan Singh garnered 1,205 votes, whereas Harikay got 944 votes.

His staunch supporters Jaswant Singh, Nitin Kapila, Gurpreet Saini, Gagandeep Singh Saini and Chander Kalia congratulated him.

A young lawyer Vikas Gupta was elected for the prestigious post of the DBA secretary. He defeated his nearest rival candidate Himanshu Walia by a margin of 312 votes. Vikas got 1,222 ballots whereas Himanshu garnered 910 votes and third contender Gurinder Sood had to content with 101 votes.

The elections were conducted by returning officer Kamaljit Sharma, along with a team of 10 assistant returning officers, under the supervision of two observers Hargobinder Singh Gill and Karamjit Choudhary, both members of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana. The voting was held from 9 am to 5 pm at six booths under the vigil of the CCTV cameras covering entry and exit points manned by cops. There was a special queue for women and senior lawyers.

The voting rights remained confined to only those members, who were enrolled with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana. Any lawyer enrolled with any other state Bar Council was not allowed to cast vote.