Veteran lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon has filed a suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today for the Bar Council's election held last November be declared illegal.

Manjeet told malaysiakini that the originating summons was filed at the court's appellate and special powers division and that the official copy of the summons will be released tomorrow.

"I am seeking a court declaration that the recent council election be declared unlawful as the postal ballot rules set out in the Legal Profession Act (LPA) was breached by the president (Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari) himself," he said when contacted this morning.

"The background on how he (Kuthubul) did it (breached the act) have been set out in details in the summons, in which I had submitted 16 documentary exhibits."

In the event that his petition is allowed by the court, Manjeet said that he will be seeking for a directive on how a fresh election should be conducted.

He added that a copy of the summons has been served to Shearn Delamore & Co, the legal firm which acts for the council.

Postal ballot controversy

Manjeet, a former Bar Council president, created an uproar among the legal fraternity when he accused Kuthubul of violating the LPA by personally collecting the ballots during the council's last elections.

He then moved a no-confidence motion against Kuthubul at the Feb 7 council meeting but his attempts failed as out of the 32 members present, 23 had voted against the motion.

While Kuthubul had admitted to collecting the postal votes, he denied violating the LPA and questioned Manjeet on why he was raising the issue only now.

"The practice of receiving ballot papers delivered by hand has been in place since the current structure of the elections came into effect in 1976," said Kuthubul.

"Manjeet, as a former office bearer, is well aware of this. To my knowledge, neither he nor any other lawyer has made an issue out of it prior to this."

Council elections is conducted entirely through postal ballots where a total of 12 senior lawyers are elected to represent the 11,000-strong Malaysian legal fraternity.

Manjeet, who was the Bar Council chief in 1989, had contested in the last polls but failed to retain a seat in the council as he finished in the 14 th spot.

He was also the secretary of the council during the 1988 judiciary crisis and was cited for contempt over his role in the open confrontation between the Bar and the judiciary.