New Delhi, Feb 14: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Bar Council of Maharashtra seeking reply to a petition challenging the election procedure to the statutory body. On a SLP against the Bombay High Court, a three-judge bench comprising Justices S Rajendra Babu, B N Agrawal and G P Mathur yesterday directed the Bar Council of Maharashtra to file a counter affidavit within two weeks. Advocate Anoop Singh Parihar had moved the apex court against a January 22 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing his writ petition saying it would not interfere as ''the election process has commenced''. The apex court issued notices to the bar council of Maharashtra and the Bar Council of India after a preliminary hearing. As an interim relief, Mr Parihar has sought a direction to include in the voters' list the names of 35,000 advocates whose names were deleted for not contributing to the advocates welfare fund.

Bureau Report