A crucial meeting of the newly-elected office-bearers of the Ganjam Bar Association held here on Tuesday adopted several important resolutions, including enhancement of affidavit fee to Rs220, increase of annual membership subscription to Rs200, hike in fee for welfare stamping on Vakalatnama to Rs20.
Bar Association President Kapileswar Pattnaik presided over the meeting, in which association secretary Sitanshu Sekhar Panda, Vice-president KM Panigrahi and joint secretary Sanjib Kumar Patra were present.
When the association president was asked as to why there is a twofold increase in such fees, he replied that these decisions were taken keeping the greater interests and welfare of the lawyers. The age-old fee structure does not hold well in the contemporary scenario, he reasoned. The bar would take stringent action if there is a violation of these decisions, added Pattnaik.
Among others, former association president and senior advocate Sisir Kumar Padhi, former secretary Nirmal Kumar Sahu, Pradip Panda, Bar Council member Bishnu Mohan, election officer Prakash Pattnaik, Pradeep Behera, Heerak Rath, Prafulla Gouda, Barun Gouda, Neela Tripathy, Akshay Pattanak and Raghu Panigrahi participated in the discussions.