Abhinav Sharma elected JHCBA president

Advocate Abhinav Sharma, who spearheaded a successful three-month agitation for a separate AIIMS for Jammu in 2015, was elected as the president of Jammu High Court Bar Association for a second time.

He succeeds advocate B S Slathia.

Abhinav defeated his nearest rival advocate Vikram Sharma by a margin of 248 votes to earn his second term as JHCBA president in the past four years.

The election for the office bearers of the JHCBA was held Saturday but the declaration of the result was delayed due to scuffle between two factions during the counting. On Sunday, the recounting was done and the results were declared late in the night.

Overall 1,981 votes were polled, out of total 2,323, for electing the new body.

Abhinav secured 999 votes to win the presidential chair, while the other contenders for the post -- Vikram Sharma got 751 votes, A K Sawhney secured 226 votes and Shakti Gupta got just five votes, said Slathia, who was the returning officer for the election.

Earlier, Abhinav was elected the president of the JHCBA in 2015, the year when the Centre sanctioned a separate AIIMS for Jammu following an agitation by a conglomerate of over 70 civil society groups under the banner of AIIMS coordination committee headed by him.

Advocate Rohit Bhagat secured 802 votes to win the Vice President's post, Slathia said, adding the other contenders for the post -- Monish Chopra got 701 votes while R S Durswal secured 480.

Abhisekh Wazir was elected as the General Secretary by securing 1,556 votes, Pardeep Majotra emerged as winner for the post of Joint Secretary by securing 935 votes and Shushant Samnotra has been elected as Treasurer, Slathia said.