IMPHAL, Apr 18: In protest against the appointment of Advocate General of Manipur from outside the State, advocates and members of High Court Bar Association staged a sit-in-protest in front of the High Court of Manipur today.
After staging the protest demonstration, a memorandum highlighting the matter was submitted to Chief Minister N Biren.
Speaking to newspersons at the protest site, one of the advocates asked the authority concerned how they thought of appointing an advocate from Andhra Pradesh as the Advocate General of Manipur, who has not been recognised as a senior advocate in his own State.
He pointed out that as per provision of Article 165 of Indian Constitution, a person who is qualified to be appointed as the Judge of a High Court shall be appointed as the Advocate General of a State.
Are senior advocates from the State not qualified to be appointed as the Advocate General of Manipur, he questioned.
He reminded that after Manipur got Statehood in 1972 Nongmeikakpam Ibotombi was appointed as the first Advocate General of the State and since then the post is being held by advocates from the State.
Maintaining that the status of senior advocate is given only after the advocate is professionally sound and does not have doubt on his integrity, he suspected that the advocate from Andhra Pradesh might be professionally unsound as he failed to get the status of senior advocate from Andhra Pradesh High Court. If such advocate is appointed as the Advocate General of Manipur then it will be a big blow to those people working in the field of law.
A member of High Court Bar Association informed that the association held an emergency meeting with regard to the matter on April 15 and yesterday wherein certain resolutions were adopted. He added that the resolutions were inserted in the memorandum.
Source: The Sangai Express
